Time Frame
by DiggyDelena
Summary: Expansions, one-shots, and additional stories based off the "Timeline" (prequel fanfiction) universe. Each one-shot corresponds to a specific time frame between two chapters, identified in each "chapter" title. Rated T for prequel material and future material.
1. Motorcycle

**Motorcycle**

[6 months - 1 year]

* * *

**Intro:**

Hello my lovelies! Before anything else it is important to know that this is a series of one-shots, not chapters of a continuous story. That in mind, all of these short stories fall into the same universe that was built in the prequel to this fanfiction **_Timeline._** You do not necessarily need to read **_Timeline_** to understand the one-shots in **_Time Frame,_** but it is strongly recommended, especially before you start reading about Auggie and Annie's kids and other life changing moments outlined in _**Timeline.**_Finally, with each one-shot title, a time frame will accompany it that directly correlates with which two chapters of Timeline that particular story would fall into so you can keep track of what point in Auggie and Annie's life you are in at the moment. (Example: this one-shot, title **_Motorcycle_** has **[6 months - 1 year]** next to it to tell you it takes place between the chapters "Their first six months together" and "After their first year together". You can find _**Timeline**_ under my profile, and let me thank you in advance for reading. I will try to post these as quickly as I can, but since they are one shots rather than chapters, I'm posting them as I write them and they will generally be significantly longer than the chapters you read in **_Timeline._**

-Liz

* * *

As a covert operative with the CIA, life and time in general moved very, very fast. Annie Walker was used to the speed, and at this point in her life, relished it. Days could fly by so quickly they felt like moments once she thought back at them. Moments fled by like they never existed, and everything could change or expand almost instantly.

The only instance in which time didn't seem to pass at record speeds, was when something different or out of the ordinary took her by surprise. A rare feat indeed, this didn't happen often, but when it did, her super perceptive eye and skills seemed to temporarily slow down the passing of time simply so she could take in every detail of the world around her as the events would unfold. The times when an op ran sour, time slowed down. The time when she found herself swarmed by angry foreign agents, time slowed down. That time six weeks ago when at the airport before departure Auggie decided suddenly to propose to her, time slowed down.

The day that Auggie almost died in front of her however,_ time stood still_.

* * *

"You are so damn stubborn," she mused at the man currently glorifying her safe house with his naked upper torso, and planting soft kisses to the back of her neck. She was trying to keep a look out for her contact who was supposed to meet her in the city square in half an hour, but had missed their earlier meet. As Annie stared out the tiny window however, she was finding it increasingly difficult to focus on that one particular hat in the masses when Auggie's smooth hands and hot lips were continuously sending shivers down her spine.

"Says the woman who wouldn't stop at world's end to pursue her own agenda. Armies, remember?" It was true of course. Auggie had told her on more than one occasion that armies alone couldn't change Annie Walker's mind when she made it. She really couldn't be too angry at him for being stubborn himself. With one finger she shifted the window curtains over an inch more to peek out the window a last time before she finally turned to her very cuddly and ever more adventurous boyfriend.

_Boyfriend._ That term didn't even sound appropriate. Were they romantically involved? A blind man could see that, no joke intended. Were they dating? Not if actual dates were required to be considered "dating." Were they in love? She would take a bullet for him. Did she see herself spending the rest of her life with him? She couldn't see a life without him. So boyfriend just didn't seem like an appropriate term for this wonderful if still slightly annoying man currently trying to seduce her back into her bed when she was supposed to be on an op that already seemed to be going sour.

"You can be very distracting when you want to be," she turned in his arms to face her with a sexy smile. Auggie couldn't see the smile, but something in the way his fingers lightly trailed over her skin as she turned in his arms told him what smile she was giving him.

"Well just being around you is distracting, Walker," he whispered back lowly with his own seductive smile. Auggie started leaning in slightly, expecting her to meet him halfway so he could miss her, but to his surprise instead, she put an arm between them, pushing him away slightly and properly puzzling him.

"You are_ so_ not getting lucky right now, Anderson," and with that proclamation of rejection she pushed away his wandering hands and pulled the rolled up fabric of her shirt back over her exposed sides. "You are still in a lot trouble."

"You are no fun," the blind man grunted back in defeat. Despite his tone however, he was smiling, indicating that playfulness wasn't completely gone from his demeanor as he managed to find his shirt and pull it back over his head.

"I'm guessing Joan has no idea you're here, right?" Annie crossed her arms strongly in front of her chest, watching Auggie's body language as he fished out the carefully woven words he was sure to give her.

"She knows I'm not where I'm supposed to be," he said back a little sheepishly. Annie wanted to roll her eyes, but she also knew this was a lot more serious than him surprising her on a vacation or ordinary trip.

"You need to go back home, Auggie."

"I can't do that," he started back, holding his ground.

"You're not even supposed to know where my safe house is and we'll discuss exactly how you found me later when we get home to DC, but you are leaving _now_."

"I can't."

"You can, and you will. I'm calling someone to pick you up right now." To make her point she took three long strides to the other end of the room to fish out her phone to call for an extraction. _Was there a protocol for a boyfriend extraction?_

"Annie, I came here for a reason, you need…" He stopped mid sentence, his head snapping in the direction of the only exit in the room. Without even a moment to question it, Annie grabbed her only weapon from her bag, knowing very well not to second guess his more perceptive senses. Silently she stepped closer to him until her hand touched his arm and he grabbed her elbow.

"Armed, at least three of them," he whispered back so low she could barely hear him. Annie listened closely and soon enough she heard the tell-tale sound of her visitors. Time slowed down.

"Where's my cane?"

Annie glanced around and spotted the folded aid on top of the three-legged stool beside the only door in the room. There wasn't a chance she was going to let him get it now. Annie listened closely, feeling like time was slowing down around them. She heard a very low rumble of voices from down below and footsteps. Someone was gathering at the base of the steps that ended just outside that door in front of her, and by the clicks and clatter she could make out, they weren't just carrying groceries. "Auggie, there's a window directly behind you, no glass, about three-and-a-half feet tall, maybe two-and-a-half wide. Directly below is a very thin ledge, only stretching out about 18 inches. We're on the second floor, so it's about an 11-foot drop to the cobblestone floor. Immediately go right after leaving the window, about five feet around the corner is a set of stairs, but they're very old and deteriorating so be careful. Run for it, as fast as you can, and meet me in the center square. They're splitting up. I'll come find you as soon as I can."

"Annie," he started but she shoved him hard in the direction of the window.

_Time sped up._ It was a flurry that blurred around her. No sooner did Auggie manage to crawl out the window that the only door in the room blasted open. She didn't even see or feel it anymore, the tall, dark stranger that burst through the door. Annie didn't like to kill, it was a last resort, but since she wasn't alone anymore, and the mission was already compromised, she didn't hesitate with her weapon. Before the splinters of the old door could clear, her first shot rang through the old structure and the first man went down.

As soon as his body fell, Annie ran for it, crossing the room in a blur towards the door and shattered stool where Auggie had laid his cane. He could buy another back in the states, or in the least grab his backup currently rolling around under her bed.

Annie peaked quickly around the corner of her room's door. A man started running up the stairs oblivious to her position just beside the doorway. Just as the burly figure burst through the doorway, she caught him in the center of his neck, and in a blur that could barely register through the adrenaline pumping through her system, the man was down and Annie was down the stairs and out the door.

Auggie. She had to find Auggie.

Annie stood centered in front of the building that housed her safe house, blood pumping in her ears with a deafening roar, rushing through her veins in a surge of perception, her eyes frantic but attentive as she scanned the the hundred or so busy bodies as the walked, ran, biked, and drove around her, names and shouted profanities in different tongues catching her ears but not her interest. Annie's direction spun to the right, scanning over all the heads that walked around, looking out for that head of brown waves and dark aviators.

Auggie. She had to find Auggie.

Annie spun around again, just to the left of the building she'd just escaped, frantically scanning the other passerbyers when she spotted it, those familiar brown waves but missing glasses on a very lost looking face, and on instinct she shouted.

"Auggie!" He heard her voice immediately and turned in the general direction of the voice.

"1 o'clock!" She shouted the direction, and he took off, as fast as he could without killing himself in the process and pummeled through groups and crowds of people his blindness left him oblivious of. Annie ran towards him, watching him as he tried to pass a group of men. One of them did not take kindly to the blind man running into him, and before Auggie would ever even realize the situation, the strangers elbow collided with his right eye, and Auggie fell.

"Auggie!" Annie shouted immediately, just as she reached him. Grabbing both his arms she guided him up and examined his eye. Just below the socket, a pink swelling was already forming, but with at least one of the men from her safe house still unaccounted for, this wasn't time for first aid. "Come on, we have to go," she told him quickly, guiding him up. She scanned the area just for safe measure when she finally found that third man. Standing, just about twenty years away or so, a man in the same attire as the two who ambushed her safe house, weapons in hands was turning, looking for her in the crowd of people between them.

"Auggie, run. Hold my arm and run."

Pulling him roughly behind her, Annie took off, running towards the center square where on the other side, her only escape from this forsaken city waited for her. Stumbling on the uneven terrain and bumping into a dozen pedestrians, Annie and Auggie weaved through the crowd. They were just reaching the square, Annie about to yell at Auggie a warning of the step up he'd have to take when a shot fired out.

_Time slowed down._ Annie spun around as another shot split through the air, the crowd around her erupted in screams, people jumping for cover, falling to their knees and pushing through others in search of safety.

Just a few yards away, Annie finally spotted that third man approaching her. Before she had a moment to warn him, Annie shoved Auggie behind her roughly, his foot tripping as he tried to keep himself upright, catching to edge of the road and bringing his whole body to the floor.

_Time stood still._ In movies there is always that moment, in the middle of an action scene when suddenly the video slows and everything pans out in slow motion, a bullet sliding across the screen like it going through jello, someone falling from a building like gravity doesn't exist, something exploding like a slow catching flame. As Annie glanced back at her falling man, it happened.

She watched the maroon motorcycle crossing behind her. Annie watched Auggie, oblivious to the things around him and disoriented from the chaos around him start to pick himself up off the floor after tripping over the edge that separates the road and center square.

Wheels screeched, a high pitched horn blew, and in agonizing speed the front wheel of the small vehicle inched towards Auggie's hunched body, colliding with the left side of his torso.

Annie's ears rang out, her vision went grey, skin and limbs numb, body cold as the horrible, crunching sound barely escaped his body as it crumbled. She lunged forward, a silent scream escaping her mouth as Auggie fell forward, the front fender of the maroon vehicle curving around his left ribs, one knee collided with the floor, the other twisted up as the force of the collision spun his whole body across the floor, and with a deafening thud, the back of his head slammed into that edge that had just tripped the blind man, the motorcycle toppled forward, its driver slipping from the seat with wide eyes that wore a look of terror as the motorcycle fell directly on top of Auggie's chest. She held her breath and watched her world around her crash into the floor with the bike.

_Time stood still._

* * *

Inside a white sterile room, the slight beeping and hum of medical machinery was the only sound to be heard. A doorknob turned silently, and just as quietly, a lightly bruised Annie made her way slowly into the hospital room. Her face was dirtly, old makeup stains faded, smudged, and running under her own devastation. Her once white shirt was brown and bloodied, some her own, some her attackers, most belonging to the man in front of her. She walked quietly around the body that lay still as death in the bed, a half dozen IVs sticking from the bruised skin of his arms, hands, and sides. Annie felt her breath catch in her throat like someone had just crushed her windpipe, choking her, making the air impossible to pass into her lungs as she took in the bloodied, mangled body of this man in front of her she loved so much. She wasn't expecting him to be awake, looking as fragile as he did now in that bed, but when a tiny choked breath escaped her lips just as her fingers tried to touch his, Auggie's normally warm eyes opened.

He was silent for a moment, and Annie froze in her spot, her fingers maybe an inch from his, her eyes focused on his blind stare as he tried to make sense of the space.

"Annie?" His rough voice finally croaked, his uncanny ability to identify her instantly bringing a smile to her teary face and letting her close the space between them as she held in his hand in hers.

"How are you feeling?"

He tried to smile, but as the swollen purple and red around the right side of his face stretched he just closed his eyes again. "Whatever pain killers they gave me says peachy. The fact that I feel like I can barely breathe says not so much."

She smiled again, but it was a look of double meaning. "Well you have a collapsed lung Auggie, and a few broken ribs."

"Feels more like all of them are broken," he groaned back, wincing a little as he tried to shift his position, but closing his hand still between hers. Something about feeling her hand in his made a peace settle over his very sore body, although it also could be the strong drugs running through his system that seemed to make the pain a more dulling effect than stabbing pain. "I really wish I could kiss you right now."

"You scared the hell out of me," Annie finally spoke up. Auggie opened his eyes this time, as if opening them would suddenly bring back his vision lost for years. It was moments like these that he wished more than ever he could see her face and look her in the eyes. Instead, his sightless eyes stared absently at a spot just slightly off-center from her face and he remained silent.

"You can't come find me during a mission anymore, Auggie."

Auggie breathed in roughly and slowly, but Annie knew from years of his company that he was listening and processing her words.

"I think we need to distance ourselves during missions."

Auggie's face fell, his eyes darkened and he felt like his chest tripled in weight against his injured lungs. "What?"

"I just…" She was having a hard time finding the right words, watching this speech she wanted to deliver fall apart in her mouth, the mangled words choking her as she tried to speak. "I think we need to stop communicating during ops, and if that means we separate ourselves…" She couldn't be breaking up with him, not again.

She struggled to find the well chosen words, every second of her silence increasing that weight that seemed to be suffocating Auggie as he awaited the rest of her speech. "Do you remember when you asked me to marry you?"

This time he physically cringed. He spent weeks planning out a proposal and instead it all spilled out at the airport before she left for a three-week mission. "We continue this conversation and I'm going to need another dose of meds, Annie."

"Ask me again."

Auggie was silent. Those three words were the last he ever expected to hear from her.

"I think we need to distance ourselves during missions, but I think that also means we need to enjoy our time together and make the most of it, and this 'my place this week, your place next week' thing is ridiculous. If we're going to split up during missions, then we should stop wasting time when we can be together and…" her hands found themselves waving around in the air as if they could pluck the words she wanted from thin air.

"Annie…" he wasn't sure if he understood her completely.

"I want you to ask me again, Auggie, because if next week I go on a mission and die or you get hit by a car crossing the road or my plane falls out of the sky in a month without my ever marrying you, neither of us will ever be able to forgive ourselves."

Finally, a bright, painfully wide smile stretched across Auggie's bruised face. "Really?"

A tearful laugh escaped Annie's lips. "Please just ask me again before I have to, because I never wanted to be the one to propose in our relationship, and I already ruined your last proposal," she laughed tearfully.

"Do you have my bag?" He could barely speak through the giddy smile on his face, and Annie stood up excitedly to complete his request as she fetched his small bag from the pile of his things that had been placed in her care when they'd both been admitted to the hospital yesterday. Auggie held out his arms expectedly and when Annie placed the leather pouch in his hands he didn't waste time fishing a hand inside it until he found the object he was looking for.

"If anyone asks, I kneeled for this but given the circumstances I'm going to stay in this bed where I can still breathe." Annie laughed at him, feeling those tears that now sprouted from an array of different emotions clouding her vision and the pain that had been there earlier. Finally, Auggie pulled out a small black velvet box from his possessions, flinging away the rest of his bag without even the slightest care where it landed. He extended his hand out blindly, and Annie didn't need to hear him to know he was asking for her hand. She felt her heart flutter in her chest, her body feel weightless and everything around her blur down to a haze.

_Time slowed down._

"Annie Catherine Walker, will you please, before anything happens that gets one of us killed or brutally mutilated, please, please, let me call you something other than just a girlfriend?" He popped the box open and even though she'd already seen that ring once before, something about her wanting to accept this time, something about sitting here knowing her life was changing as he asked her again made the beautiful jewel in front of her appear as if this was the first time she was laying her eyes on it.

"I should have said yes the first time," she cried in excitement.

"Say yes this time, Annie." Auggie was smiling in way Annie had never seen and she felt a giddy laughter build up in her gut as she awaited his question.

"Will you marry me?"

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Hello my lovely readers! As per request, this is the first of multiple one-shots I'll be doing based off my other Covert Affairs' fanfiction, _**Timeline.**_ This one-shot was personally requested by bettsam0731 who asked for me to expand on the "motorcycle" that Annie mentions in the last chapter on **_Timeline_**. Originally, I had a small flashback of Auggie getting hit in the 1-year chapter, but it ended up being cut because it didn't fit well with the rest of the chapter, so I forgot that no one knew what Annie meant when she mentioned the motorcycle at the end, so here it is in the first story!

I have some ideas for other additions swirling, (anyone want a wedding one-shot? I do!) but if you have any ideas or even requests for specific additions, (including said wedding) don't hesitate to review, send me a PM, or contact me via my tumblr DiggyLiz.

Lots of Love,

- Liz


	2. Baby Bump

**Baby Bump [4 years - 5 years]**

* * *

"Good morning, beautiful," a man's soft voice almost sang in her ear as Annie stirred into wakefulness. Groggy and still feeling half asleep, Annie Anderson made a noise somewhere between a groan and a grunt in attempts to dismiss her much-too-chipper husband and drift back off to sleep where she could be comfortable, avoid nausea, and wear shoes again that her three-sizes-too-swollen feet weren't bursting the seams of.

"My lovely," he kissed the back of her shoulder blade softly. "Wonderful," he lay a sweet kiss at the top of her shoulder. "Gorgeous," his lips pressed warmly to the back of her neck. "Stunning…"

"Oh God, stop," she cut him off before he could get any closer. Eyes still closed she whipped her hand back, intent or pushing her very annoying husband away, and in the process getting him square in the eye. Auggie instantly flinched back away from his wife, squeezing his eyes shut tightly against the burn that her poke had just caused.

"Ok, I'm already blind, there's no need to attack the eyes," he groaned rubbing at his sightless eyes. He waited for Annie to respond in some way, perhaps apologize for her unintended attack on her husband or give him some half excuse for her sour mood this morning, but instead he just listened to her silently shift slightly in her bed.

"Do you want me to call Joan and tell her you're not going in today?"

"I'm pregnant, not disabled, I'll get up in a minute. You're just annoying me."

Auggie was silent. Annie closed her eyes again, intent on catching just a few more moments of peace when her words suddenly struck her.

"I didn't mean that," she said quickly. She reached back, feeling for him but when her hand patted at an empty bed, she finally sat up to look for her husband who was already at the opposite side of the bedroom, picking out a vest for the day.

"I'm sorry," she said lowly. Auggie's expression was empty, something she recognized from her spy training as the spy's version of a poker face: emotionally, empty, and vacant.

"You're sorry for hitting me in the eye or for your hormones reminding your disabled husband how completely useless he's going to be at helping you with this baby when he's born?"

His words stung her hard enough that she felt her eyes close under the weight of her heart. "Don't say that Auggie."

"Nope, not saying anything," his words came out cold and he turned his back on her.

Annie's own mental monologue then was so loud, if her husband could see, he would have been able to read the words right off her eyes. _You stupid, hormonal, bitch. What a great choice of words there, mommy-to-be._

With some stiffness and a strange flurry in her stomach, Annie sat the rest of the way up, swinging her legs over the side of the bed and greeting the fluffy rug beside her bed with her pink, swollen toes. She groaned a little, her back feeling twisted and pulled as she lifted herself and her ever-growing and moving unborn son up to her feet.

Auggie could hear her get up, her slow and heavy movements obvious to his perceptive ears. He could have walked away from her if he really wanted to these days. Usually he was the slow one, the one who needed to count every step he was taking, remember the measurements of the room he was in so he wouldn't collide with any walls, and as a result, usually kept a slower pace. Ever since Annie virtually popped overnight and started growing more and more with every passing day, she got slower and suddenly he was the one waiting for her rather than the other way around. It had its benefits at times like these when her raging hormones threatened to bury him in Annie Walker Anderson's fury. Just last week she'd decked him with a pillow, which was harmless in itself, but his resulting stumble brought down the hallway table he miscalculated.

Annie walked slowly over to where her husband stood, finishing his buttons and belt that completed his attire for the day. He didn't drop his empty expression, but from years of living with him and being around him even before that, she was well tuned to his subtler body language now, and she knew her last spout of fiery anger had hurt him. In fact, she knew he'd been worried and just about near panic mode for weeks, her throwing that horrible word in his face was a punch in the gut when he was already down.

"I'm sorry," Annie said quietly as she came up to Auggie. She wrapped her arms tightly around him, and while he didn't return any of the sentiment, he didn't reject her either. Instead, he stilled his movements, letting his wife hug him from behind. She felt her body sink into as much of a peace as she could get in her current state, with her arms around him, breathing deeply with a dozen silent words but none spoken aloud. For a moment he was cold and unmoving, but finally he covered her arms with his in another silent gesture.

"You know no one around us thinks of you that way, right?" Her voice was low and tiny, testing the waters gently around the tender situation.

"I want to Annie," he started remarkable calmly. "But I think ever since you started showing and everyone really thought about the fact that I'm going to be a father, it's almost like when I first came back to Langley after Tikrit all over again."

"Auggie," Annie started with a tug at his arm so he could finally turn to her, but he cut her off.

"You don't need to deny it, Annie. I know even Joan has thought about it, and she's always been one of my better supporters."

His blind eyes looked in her direction, and even though it was rare when it happened, in that moment Annie was actually thankful he couldn't see her expression. She felt a numbing ache deep in her chest hearing him spill out these insecurities he only once ever shared with her. Even after all these years together, she felt like she was still putting together the ever complex puzzle that was Auggie Anderson, her husband, lover, friend and partner.

"You know, I rarely _ever_ let myself put on a pity party. For years I've been determined that I'd never let myself feel disabled by_ this_," he waved his hand in front of his sightless eyes for emphasis before finding her warm side again. "I'd only been there once, and that was when I was learning how not to walk into poles or columns and read all over again."

Annie watched his face closely, the expressions slowly shift over his features and present themselves to her as the cold, empty expression faded away. Instinctively she rubbed her hands slowly over his arms in a soothing and calming manner, never letting sight of his eyes.

"And even when you got pregnant, it didn't completely get to me yet. I mean when we talked about stopping our use of birth control and letting nature take its course, I had this nightmarish moment of realization that I was _never_ going to see my son or daughter if you did end up pregnant, but I think you kind of distracted me from the thought soon enough. I was just so excited about having a family, getting to do this when really I never thought it was going to happen after all my failed attempts…"

Annie sprouted a smile at the thought when he brought it up but didn't interrupt him.

"…that I just didn't let myself think about the problems we were going to face when you got too big to do everything you needed to comfortably, or when the baby was actually born."

"We'll figure it out, Auggie," Annie finally whispered to him. She tightened her hold around him, and this time he reciprocated by tightening his hold around her. Even with her almost 7-and-a-half-month belly between them, his arms just seemed to fit so perfect around her, even if they didn't fit all the way around her anymore.

"Do you know when it all became real to me?" He questioned out loud. "What suddenly made all these issues dawn on me?"

Without an answer, Annie stayed silent.

"The day we found out we were having a boy."

It hit her then. The realization of something she'd been oblivious to earlier, too distracted by her own brief happiness and excitement. That moment he was referring to wasn't her first sonogram, but it was the first one where she really got to see her baby as her baby and not just a little kidney bean of cells floating around in her uterus.

"Because I got to see the baby," she whispered in realization.

"Because I _can't_," he replied in such a voice that Annie felt her heart sink in her chest. His unblinking eyes weren't turned to her direction anymore, an attempt to hide his inner turmoil from her gaze. Annie felt her eyes stinging and her throat constrict, and even though she knew it was the hormones, because she was not the kind of woman to cry so easily or frequently as she had recently, she didn't fight off the stinging tears accumulating in her eyes. Without even thinking through the moment, she let go of his sides, reached her hands up to take his face between them, and leaning up on her still swollen feet, kissed him strongly, and passionately on the mouth in a way that said more words than she could in the moment. The sudden attack caught Auggie by surprise, and he stumbled a half step back into the dresser behind him, but once he'd ground his feet, he held her even tighter against his body, deepening the kiss into something they hadn't shared in months.

It was a kiss that left them breathless, a kiss that made her heart start to pound deep in her chest, that made her pulse race through her veins, and left her head airy and light from the intensity of it all. It was a kiss that didn't say anything and yet said everything all at once.

When their lips finally parted, they rested their foreheads together, something that was classically them, and whether it was still the baby playing with her emotions, or just her happiness from feeling the fire of his affection she'd been craving since this grey cloud formed over him, Annie let out a laugh.

A wide smile spread across Auggie's face, and instead of saying anything anymore, and let the meaningless words hurt this beautiful moment that came so unexpectedly, he just kissed her again. The kiss was much gentler and slower, but it left a sweetness on their lips that warmed them to their very cores.

"I love you," Annie whispered out finally, trying not to laugh. Auggie prepared to return the sentiment, the words on his lips, his hands pulling her into another kiss when Annie suddenly sucked in a deep and pained breath that startled her blind husband.

Something tiny but powerful stabbed her painfully in the side, successfully knocking the breath out of her and causing her to instinctively gasp loudly at the painful jab.

"What's wrong?" Auggie's voice sounded in alert. Annie opened her eyes, her hand flying to her side and clutching at her ribs that felt like they were going to separate. The pain of it left her gasping at the sharpness, but the timing of the occurrence made a laugh start to grow in her lungs too.

"Now you're just scaring me," Auggie commented blindly at his wife's unwarranted laughter, which in turn just made her giggle more.

"Here," she told him quickly pulling his right arm from around her waist and pressing his hand roughly against her throbbing ribs. Auggie didn't say anything for a moment before another gasp escaped her mouth and something under his hand moved to the side.

"Do you feel that?" She tried not to laugh under the horribly uncomfortable tightness and ache that seemed to be rupturing around her ribs. "Do you feel that tiny but," she had to breathe as the bump jabbed again. "_Impressively powerful_ bump?"

If Auggie's face could glow, this was the moment it had, and despite the horrible pain she was feeling from her son's sudden intrusion into the couple's moment, there was something absolutely perfect in the timing of everything.

"_That_ is your son, Auggie. That bump, is your little future soccer-player or martial-artist's son's foot, currently kicking your very uncomfortable wife in the ribs, and you don't need to see a black and white picture on a thirty-year-old monitor to be the perfect daddy he needs." Annie smiled through the words, all the discomfort seeming to fade with the smile she watched on Auggie's face. She hugged him closer, resting her head against his shoulder, one of his arms wrapped tightly around her side but the other never leaving her ribs. She felt her husband's thumb instinctively rub little circles around the tiny bump sticking from her side, mesmerized in it, and it made her heart swell. They both ignored the rest of the world around them until Annie let out another stressed gasp followed by another light laughter.

"His foot is jammed between my ribs, Auggie. Congratulations, you impregnated me with a monster."

There was little her much-too-capable husband could do at this point but laugh along with her and let himself be mesmerized by the feel of his unborn son's foot under his mother's skin.

Work be damned, they were having a moment. The three of them.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

And baby makes 3. =]

I would really, really, _really_ appreciate and love to hear your reviews and thoughts. Do you like it? Do you hate it? Is it true to their characters or did I botch the whole thing?

I think at one point I had three different versions of this started, and then ended up going with the hormonal Annie one. In my head, I'd imagine Annie, who lives for the crazy hectic and action-packed job, actually really hate having to slow down because she's pregnant. In my head, that means Auggie has his hands full with bitchy, hormonal, pregnant Annie too, but it make for some cute fights and makeup scenes, no?

I'm also really hesitant whenever I bring up Auggie's insecurities because I don't want to make him seem any less independent, strong, and capable than he really is on his own.

So I'd love you forever for some thoughts.

Lots of love,

- Liz


	3. Chicken Pox

**Chicken Pox [5 years - 10 years]**

* * *

**On the first day of Annie's trip, Auggie got a call.**

Exactly five and three-quarters inches to the right of his right elbow, a sharp, shrill ringing erupted from a phone that in the past six years had rang twice, if that. Auggie paused immediately hearing the ring. That was _not_ his Langley office line, which meant it could only be one of maybe five people calling.

He paused the audio playback that his computer had been reading to him and turned down his headphones, and letting it ring a third time, the customary amount for his cover phone line, he finally picked it up.

"Smithsonian, IT department, how may I help you?" There were two different rings that came from that particular phone. The first was for Annie, in which case Auggie's cover was to answer for whatever department she'd pretended to be working at during the time in which that line rang. About three years ago when Tommy, his son, had started preschool, a second line was added, this time for Auggie, in which case he always answered with the ambiguous, "IT department." It was an easy enough cover to keep up since IT was rarely seen out and about, and it was a field he was more than qualified to maneuver in real life if he had to.

"Hello, this is Kimberly Wallace looking for a Mr. August Anderson?"

Auggie cringed. He knew very well who exactly _Kimberly Wallace_ was.

"This August speaking, how may I help you today?"

"Hello Mr. Anderson, I'm calling you from the school clinic this morning because your son told me your wife was out of town and I don't have a personal cell number on record for you." In the brief pause of the woman's speech, Auggie counted his blessings he never _had_ left a cell number. It was much easier to distinguish lines on his office phone than a cellphone.

"My apologies Ms. Wallace. I must have never given Tommy my number to turn in to you. I'm glad you had my work number in his file however. Has my son done something I should be worried about?" If he were a superstitious man, this would have been the moment that he crossed his fingers and prayed his son didn't get through his kindergarten's firewall again. Tommy was barely five, and he was already more tech-savvy than the average pre-teen. Of course, he knew _exactly_ who to blame for that.

"Oh no, not at all," the much too-chipper teacher said happily in a pitch slightly too high to comfort Auggie's perceptive ears. "He's been wonderful this week, very well behaved." _Thank goodness._

Auggie waited for her to continue, but instead she was silent. "That's…great to hear," he said awkwardly. It wasn't that he didn't love to hear his son was brilliant and well-behaved, he honestly did, but he currently had his wife in Australia taking the position of liaison for his department and a new operative on a high-classified op in an unmentionable country who was already sixteen minutes behind schedule for his check-in call.

"I'm so sorry Ms. Wallace, I love to hear that my son is excelling in school but we're currently having a problem with the servers here and I have about three-hundred employees waiting on me to fix it so they can get their payday checks."

"Oh, of course Mr. Anderson." _Couldn't she just call him Auggie? Or at the very least by his first name? _"Actually I'm calling because I think your son needs to be taken home. It seems he's encountered chickenpox from a few other classmates who have been out all last week with the same condition."

If Auggie could have hit his head on his glass desk then without his son's teacher hearing him, he probably would have. _Chickenpox._ Of all the things for his son to get into the one week his mother was out of town, it had to be _chickenpox._

"Mr. Anderson?"

Auggie quickly composed himself, bringing the phone back to his ear from where it had slipped. His free hand pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Yep. Still here." He didn't even bother keeping up the professionalism. Without waiting for the teacher to continue, he immediately pulled up his operative's number on his computer before him and started composing a message to call him as soon as his plane landed. His new operative was incredibly talented and well trained, but he seemed to have the continuing issue of checking in with his handler.

"By law we have to ask that someone take Tommy off the premises. Is there any way you can get a family member or friend to come pick him up? He probably won't need a doctor's visit but I recommend you call his pediatrician, and he will not be allowed back into school until he's deemed no longer contagious. Have you ever contracted chicken pox in your life, Mr. Anderson?"

"Unfortunately," he muttered lowly, but by the teachers silence he didn't think she'd heard him. "Yes Mrs. Wallace, I had chicken pox along with my four brothers when I was a little older than Tommy's age." The other phone beside his arm suddenly started vibrating. It was his operative, he could tell by the pattern. "Mrs. Wallace?" he called out to the teacher still on the line. He didn't have much of a choice. "I'll come pick him up in about half an hour." He hung up on the teacher and flipped over to his other line before she could say anything else.

"How was your flight, Hendricks? Please tell me you're back in D.C.…"

He didn't wait for his operative's rundown to start typing away a request for a temporary replacement, or for a car to come get him.

- - - - - 8 - - - - -

After confirming that Jack Hendricks was safe and sound back home, he took off in a company car as soon as possible. Auggie tried to remember the time when he had chickenpox, how much he'd itched and scratched and his mother's constant pestering for him not to scratch himself. When he'd arrived at Tommy's school and managed to find the clinic, he hadn't expected his little man to sound so miserable. From the sounds of it, little Tommy was probably up most of the night scratching at his ailment, so by the time Auggie got to his school the five-year-old was half asleep, and as soon as his father picked him up in his arms, he was fast asleep. He didn't even wake up when his father buckled him in the car.

The child was currently curled into his father's side, his little arms wrapped around Auggie's, and his curly head smashed against Auggie's vest. Auggie reached over with his hand not currently being used as a pillow for his son to feel his forehead, and the warm temperature that emanated from his son's skin was disturbing.

It was times like these that his connections and career had an advantage. Within fifteen minutes of getting his son into the car, he'd called his son's pediatrician and had some anti-itch ointment, oatmeal bath and a bottle of some children's strength fever reducer waiting for him at his front door. As he hung up his phone, Tommy was already scratching at what felt like his arm.

"Where's mommy?" The child asked out then. Auggie felt his heart tug at the question.

"She's on a trip Tommy, remember? She told you last night when she put you to bed that she'd be back in a few days?" He listened for some audible indication of what expression his son was wearing, but instead just felt Tommy rest his head back against his arm and wrap his tiny hands in his sleeve.

"I'm sorry kiddo," he said gently as he leaned against his son to make his itchy child as comfortable as possible.

Tommy didn't say anything else after that, and by the time the car pulled up in front of the Anderson home, Auggie could hear his even breathing that indicated he was fast asleep once more.

As carefully as he could and without jostling his five-year-old more than necessary, Auggie pulled his son into his arms and carried him out of the car. If he had taken a cab instead of the company car, he would have needed to unfold his cane just to make it to his front door. Having taken the company car however, Auggie knew from the past 7 years that the car always stopped exactly three steps from the edge of the grass, which was exactly six steps from the beginning of his sidewalk, that was three steps back from the 4 steps up to his front door. His front door key was the one with round hole in it and smooth finish. The threshold of his home was almost perfectly flush with the floor so he didn't need to worry about tripping on that. It was only one long step to the table by the door where carefully and quietly he could put down his cane and keys without disturbing the sick little boy who was currently holding onto his father's neck so tightly Auggie worried he'd start to suffocate before he could get him to bed.

* * *

**On the third day of Annie's trip, Tommy got itchy.**

"Stop it," the father's warning voice rang out with a playful undertone that wasn't wasted on the very itchy 5-year-old who immediately let out a giggle. Auggie let out a big wide grin in response. A little bit of medicine and a fever that was now managed and the kid was as rambunctious as usual, and over the past few hours a game of _'lets see if daddy knows I'm scratching' _had started between them. Auggie was winning.

"What's so funny?" Auggie teased him playfully at his son's insistent giggle.

"How do you know I'm scratching?" His son's young voice mused loudly.

"I'm psychic," his father replied with a squinty eye and a teasing, playful expression that simply brought on another giggle from his son. The child had been energetic, rambunctious, and much too hyper all day being cooped up in the house, but after spending all of the evening prior watching over his son's fever and about an hour in the middle of the night in which he'd started vomiting for a brief time, the sound of his son's happy laughter was music to Auggie's ears. He'd take a hyper and happy son over a miserable one that threatened to make a mess he'd have a hell of a time trying to clean up any day.

"You're scratching," the father said out loud again when he heard the rough sound of fabric rubbing against fabric. Another giggle erupted.

"How come you can't see?" The five-year-old's question abruptly came up. Auggie paused, not so much worried about the question as he was surprised by the abrupt nature of its appearance.

"I'm blind, kiddo. My eyes just don't work." Auggie listened closely to his son's response. He could faintly make out some fidgeting, but he knew it wasn't scratching. The five-year-old was thinking; he could literally hear his thoughts processing inside that bright little brain of his.

"Are my eyes going to stop working too?" Tommy asked next, a little more nervously this time.

The words tugged at his heart as Auggie processed them. Silently putting down the pan he'd just been attempting to clean, he stepped carefully towards the kitchen island where his son was currently perched on a stool. Leaning over the island top while resting his elbows on the island's cool surface and his head in his hands, Auggie faced his son as best he could, and he could tell from his son's silence that the little boy was focused on his father's response.

"As long as you mommy and I can take care of you, I promise I'll _never_ let your eyes get hurt."

"Do they hurt?" Tommy's voice came out much tinier this time.

Auggie couldn't resist the small smile that stretched a corner of his mouth. "No buddy, my eyes don't hurt."

"How did they get hurt?"

Auggie let out a deep breath. How was he supposed to simplify head trauma and brain injury to a five-year-old? "You know what Tommy, it wasn't actually my eyes that I hurt. It was my head. I had a really bad accident when I was younger, before I met your mommy and I went blind because of it."

"How?" The child's curiosity was peeked now, something that meant Auggie's questioning was only just beginning, but at least it was distracting his son from his very itchy skin.

"I hit my head really, _really_ hard, and it hurt a part of my head that asks my eyes what they see." Was that simple enough for a five-year-old to comprehend?

"Is that why your eyes are brown like mine?"

Finally a laugh came to Auggie's throat. "What are you talking about?"

"We had a lady come to school, and it was this lady from the blind school, and she was telling us a lot of stuff about the school, but her eyes were all grey and not brown like yours."

Auggie smiled. "Really? And did she tell you anything about being blind?"

"Yea," the child said excitedly. "She was saying that, that when people can't see that they start to use their ears and other _cents_ to see everything."

Auggie let out a chuckle. "I think you mean _senses_," he chuckled. "But that's very good."

"Is that how you know I'm scratching?" the young kid asked loudly at his father like he'd just put together a puzzle.

Auggie smiled. _Count on a five-year-old to call him out on his bluff._

"Didn't I just tell you I'm psychic?"

* * *

**On the fifth day of Annie's trip, the boys watched a movie.**

"We are currently watching a gripping movie about one little patriotic fish's daring adventure to find his lost friend the octopus who's been stolen by the mean, controlling squid."

"He's not a squid, he's a shark!" The excited five-year-old yelled back as hearing his father's incorrect fish choice.

"Oh I apologize," Auggie teased back to his wife. "It's a shark. How very unobservant of me." On the other end of the line, Annie's crisp laugh made him smile.

"So," Auggie started a little lower this time. "Did your flight make it in well?" It was a code phrase. Auggie wasn't really asking his wife about her flight five days after she'd already arrived to her destination, he was fishing for information, information he wasn't supposed to ask but Annie new too well he always did anyway.

"This barely counts as a mission. It almost feels like a real business trip," Annie said with almost a hint of sadness. Auggie frowned. He knew ever since his son had been born and they'd built this routine with him that Annie had been itching to get back in the field. Her itch was almost as bad as his after he had his accident and was permanently removed from the field, except that Annie was still perfectly capable to do just about anything she could before their son turned the couple into a family of three, and that was something she was having a difficult time to manage.

"Great," Auggie spoke back low. It wasn't really 'great' at all, but for his five-year-old son's benefit, he wasn't going to start getting somber on the phone. He and Annie could have their adult conversations when she came back home and his son was snug in bed, preferably with mittens on his hands so he didn't scratch himself into one giant scab.

"So how is our little man's terrible chickenpox?"

Auggie cracked a smile before filling in his wife on all the adventures the pair had experienced the past three days.

Tommy glanced back at his father who was smiling at whatever it was that his mother was telling him. His dad's laughter filled the air behind him, but finding the movie in front of him much more entertaining, the five-year-old turned his attention back to the film.

"Annie, your husband is more than capable to take care of his son for a few days. Besides, we're having a good week, aren't we buddy?"

"Yeah!" the child said excited. Auggie heard his son jump up, and he prepared himself just before his son climbed up on top of the sofa and his father to speak closer to the phone. Auggie smiled as he handed the phone over to his son, one arm around his small body making sure he wouldn't fall from his perch.

"Hi mommy…" Auggie listened closely to his son talk on the phone. The volume was low, but his well-tuned ears could make out Annie's small voice on the other side of the line enough to paint a colorful picture of her conversation with their son. She asked him how he was feeling and what he had been up to with his dad all week, which made Auggie want to roll his eyes. Tommy gave her a very exciting run down of the "scratching" game they'd played and the movie his daddy had ordered for them, after which he proudly told his mother that dad wasn't watching the movie and reading a book instead until Tommy started to explain to him what was actually happening.

"Ok mommy, I love you too," the child finally said after a few minutes. On instinct the child pressed the phone into his father's hand before jumping off of his perch and back to the floor where he engrossed himself back into the movie.

"I have to go now. I have a contact I need to meet with in an hour and I want to shower before I leave." Annie delivered the words nonchalantly but something in her choice of words made Auggie want to groan a little, and by the way he could practically hear her smile over the phone, that was exactly her intent. He'd much rather have _her_ in _his _shower right now.

"Alright, I love you. Don't destroy the house while I'm gone."

Auggie laughed. "I'll try not to but no promises. I love you." Annie hung up on her side and Auggie followed shortly after, placing the phone back on its stand just behind the sofa he was lounging in.

"So, the little fish finally find his friend?" Auggie asked his son aloud after a moment of silence between them in which the children's movie broke into a musical number.

"How do you know what's going on in the movie?" Tommy's question came out without an answer to his father's.

Auggie laughed a little. "I can hear it, just like you, kiddo." It was a child's movie, which basically meant the story line wasn't really Auggie's cup of tea, but it was simple enough for the blind man to know exactly what was happening without any audio subtitles. Besides, he was much more enjoying listening to his son watch the movie and reading the book in his hands than listening to a red, white and blue little fish look for his best friend the purple octopus. He didn't have the best memory of what red, white and blue or even purple looked like anymore, but he was pretty sure fish and octopi weren't the colors the child's movie was representing them as.

* * *

**On the seventh day of Annie's trip, Annie finally came home.**

When Annie Walker Anderson's cab dropped her off in front of her home, she immediately felt an ease settle in her that hadn't been present since Auggie had left her that voicemail five days ago that their son had been sent home sick with the horrible chickenpox.

From outside the home she could see a faint glow emanating from the back of the window curtains she new as her bedroom. Still, it was past two-in-the-morning so she figured the boys were already fast asleep, and if anything, Auggie just left the TV on for background noise. He'd never admit it, but Annie knew after spending the past ten years living with her, Auggie had gotten accustomed to the background noise of another human being and when she wasn't there, the silence was a little unnerving to him. In her mind, Annie thought of it as the equivalent of wanting the lights on even if she didn't need them to navigate the house when she was home alone.

As quietly as she could, Annie unlocked the front door of her home and let herself in. She carefully locked it back up behind her, dropped her purse on the table beside Auggie's cane and keys, and as quietly as she could manage, wheeled her suitcase into the hallway closet. The last time she came home this late and left her suitcase out, Auggie found it, and not in the way he would have liked to.

Her heels now in hand, she tiptoed through the house towards her son's room. As she passed the living area, she noticed the blankets all bundled on top of the sofa, and what she hoped was an empty juice box in the corner of the coffee table. Auggie probably didn't even know it was there.

Tommy's door was closed when she came to it, so with one hand flat against the door, and the other turning the handle, Annie was as quiet as possible in opening her son's door.

Except Tommy wasn't in it. Finding an empty bed, Annie didn't bother being nearly as quiet as she pushed the door the rest of the way in, and finding the room was in fact empty, a frown came to her face. _Where was her son?_

A thought occurred to the blonde then, and turning and padding her way silently to the opposite end of the half, she peeked in the half-open doorway and smiled. Fast asleep in the middle of the bed, were her two boys. Auggie was passed out with his back against the pillows and one arm outstretched to the opposite side of the bed in a way that would surely leave him sore in the morning. Tommy on the other hand was curled up in a way under Auggie's other arm that reminded Annie too much of a puppy. Using his father's extended arm as a pillow, the five year old was snuggled into his father's side, the top of his head just against his sleeping father's chin, and his little hand looking like it had been grabbing his father's shirt. The two of them looked so peaceful sleeping there in the middle of her bed, Annie almost felt guilty when she stopped just standing there in her doorway starring at her family and quietly walked over to her husband's sleeping form.

"Auggie," she whispered out as low as she could manage. She reached out her hand, and as soon as her skin touched Auggie's, he flinched and his sightless eyes snapped open. He froze, unmoving and silent until he heard her whisper his name again and he immediately relaxed into her touch.

"Hey, you're home," he whispered as he very carefully and slowly removed his arm from under his son. Auggie leaned up slightly until Annie could meet him in the middle with her soft lips that brought a smile to his sleepy face.

"We missed you," he whispered up to her softly.

"I can see that," she commented. Auggie couldn't see the way she motioned at her son's sleeping form as she spoke the words, but after spending as many years together as they had, he seemed to always know what she was hinting at even when he couldn't see it.

A low and long yawn broke through Auggie's body then, and it made Annie giggle a little in response. "You know," Auggie said once his running eyes stopped watering with sleepiness. "How about I go put our little itchy man here to bed and you can get situated."

Annie's only response was another kiss that left a sweet taste on Auggie's lips and a promise of a more proper hello later. As Auggie picked up his sleeping son and gently carried him out of the room and to his own, Annie padded her way to the attached master bathroom to change into something more comfortable than a suit she'd spent the last 32 hours in and get herself ready for bed. When she reemerged from the bathroom, Auggie was already back in bed, the comforter now turned down and excess pillows removed as he lay on his back, eyes closed and a heavy and steady breathing that sounded dangerously close to sleeping.

Annie turned off the only light in the room, and slowly crawled into bed and under the sheets next to her half-sleeping husband. Upon feeling the mattress shift below him, Auggie shifted his body slightly so Annie could crawl in next to him in a way the two had grown accustomed to over the years. As Annie snuggled in closer to her husband, she let the peace of inhaling his warm sent and feeling his skin next to hers sink into her sore body. She had missed him.

"I know this week didn't go according to plan, but I actually liked spending the time with Tommy," Auggie whispered out low to his wife. "Tommy's a great kid. He's so smart, he even called me out once or twice this week."

Annie's response to her husband's words was a soft kiss to his shoulder.

"We did good." Auggie whispered once more after a moment of silence.

Annie felt a smile spread her lips and she wrapped an arm around her husband's chest. She felt her heartbeat quicken a bit at the words that were on her lips before she spoke them.

"I'm glad you said that," she started cautiously. In the darkness of the room, Auggie cocked an eyebrow at his wife's strange words, but she finished the sentence before he could question her on it.

"Because I think I'm pregnant."

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Reminder that Tommy and Jamie (his little sister) are 6 years apart. The intention was that Tommy was planned (for the most part) and Jamie was a "surprise! You're pregnant!" Which is really funny because this story started off as a conversation between Auggie and Tommy about being blind and turned into a 4-part one-shot about Tommy having the chickenpox while Annie was out of town and ending up with her telling Auggie she thinks she's pregnant again.

Just a heads up, I've gotten about a dozen different people asking me to please, please, _please_ write a honeymoon one-shot for Auggie and Annie. So that will probably be the next addition.

Reviews and requests always welcome!

- Liz


	4. Four

**Four ['Chicken Pox' extended ending request]**

* * *

As Annie snuggled in closer to her husband, she let the peace of inhaling his warm sent and feeling his skin next to hers sink into her sore body. She had missed him. "I know this week didn't go according to plan, but I actually liked spending the time with Tommy," Auggie whispered out low to his wife. "Tommy's a great kid. He's so smart, he even called me out once or twice this week."

Annie's response to her husband's words was a soft kiss to his bare shoulder.

"We did good." Auggie whispered once more after a moment of silence.

Annie felt a smile spread her lips and she wrapped an arm around her husband's chest. She felt her heartbeat quicken a bit at the words that were on her lips before she spoke them.

"I'm glad you said that," she started cautiously. In the darkness of the room, Auggie cocked an eyebrow at his wife's strange words, but she finished the sentence before he could question her on it. "Because I think I'm pregnant."

* * *

Auggie blinked. His sightless eyes wandered aimless in front of him, his head was spinning, his ears were humming and he felt like was body was getting electric as he processed his wife's announcement.

"Auggie?" Annie whispered when she felt her husband frozen beside her and the silence that followed that last word she'd muttered was deafening.

_I think I'm pregnant._

Annie felt her nerves building with every passing moment. She'd expected her husband to be stunned when she told him, but she wasn't sure she thought he'd ever act like _this._

"I haven't taken a test yet, so there's no definite…" She started slowly, feeling the worst of his silence. _He didn't like this. He obviously didn't want this now._

"Really?" Auggie's croak finally erupted. Annie couldn't see him in the deep darkness of their bedroom, but something in his voice told her perhaps he wasn't upset in the way she had thought he was when her announcement silenced her.

"I think so…" she began slowly, and then abruptly and without warning, she felt his arms come around her and pull her tightly on top of him until her whole body was pressed again his, a laugh erupting from Annie's lips just as he captured her mouth, almost perfect with his. She could _feel_ his smile against her and the surge of undiluted happiness wash over her in the way he held her tightly against him. In the minimal light that captured his featured, Annie could faintly make out a smile that sang to her a million words at once. _This was a good thing._

"We're going to have another baby?" The excitement was heavy in his voice.

Annie laughed as their lips parted and she let her fingers slide around his neck. "Generally a baby is the end product of a pregnancy, yes."

"I just...how? When did you find out?" Only moments ago his mind was shutting down for the night, exhaustion and comfort lulling his thoughts to sleep, but this announcement, this _wonderful_ announcement awakened his mind like an alarm clock, and in the hustle of such a shock, his mouth was jumbling the words he attempted to vocalize.

Annie laughed, one of her hands around his neck, feeling his warm skin and loose half curls under and between her fingers. "Well," she started as her other hand traced invisible lines down the smooth pains of his neck and chest. "I think you already know the logistics of a _how_, Auggie. And for the when...I've been feeling a little off for a few weeks, and then the third day of my trip I was walking by a pharmacy and it reminded me that I was...late."

The idea that a smile, a simple movement of an array of muscles under skin and fat can ever be described as 'brilliant' was always a strange idea to someone trained to think so logically and strategically as a spy of Annie Walker Anderson's caliber. In that moment, however, the look she saw on her husband's face could only be described as _brilliant._

"Another baby," he whispered much lower this time. Annie smiled back, and feeling the overwhelming sense of comfort and assurance, she let her body relax into his as she rested her tired head on his chest and left the fingers of her right hand draw lazy circles on his skin in a way that was very much hers. She found comfort and home being close to him and hear the faint rhythm of his heart beating in his chest.

"What are you thinking?" Annie's question almost came as a whisper to him.

"I'm just thinking about how I never thought I would end up here." His admission sounded strange to her.

"Really?"

"I wanted this," he replied low and carefully. "I wanted this, but I didn't _really_ expect to find it after I started at Langley and then after my accident, and even less so after my last failed romance before we started this...and sometimes I just think about how I ever managed to get here with you, my best friend that I married, and our beautiful kid that gave us a family. And now our family of three may very well be our family of four, and that to me is something I never would have seen coming."

Annie smiled, her heart within her swelling warmly and proudly.

_Our family of four._

"I can feel you smiling," Auggie abruptly broke Annie's thoughts.

He was right. Since her announcement she hadn't once stopped smilling.

"Maybe this time we'll have a girl," Annie teased lightly, finally getting a playful grown from her husband. She laughed.

_This was a good thing._

* * *

**Author's Note:**

I got a lovely request from collabkk to write something about either Auggie's reaction to Annie's announcement at the end of 'Chicken Pox' or something of when Annie is pregnant with Jamie, so all my thanks go to you. Its just a short little tidbit so everyone can see how excited Auggie is about Annie's surprise souvenir. =]

If you'd like to stay updated on the next fanfictions and catch previews or just theorize about everything Covert Affairs, make sure to check out my tumblr DiggyLiz.

Next addition to Time Frame will be a honeymoon one-shot. (Spoiler alert: they're going to the galapagos Islands.) But before then, be on the lookout for a one to three-part fic I'll be posting outside of the Timeline universe involving Annie going dark and how Auggie reacts to it and eventually finds her. I've already been bouncing ideas back and forth with others via tumblr, so I'm excited about it. (And thanks to Epona3 aka LovetoLoveher80's encouragement to write it myself in the first place.) =]

Lots of Love,

- Liz


	5. Black Eye

**Black Eye [20 years - 30 years]**

* * *

Tommy was 11 years old when he met Allison Hendricks. Also 11 at the time, the two met in their very first math class on the their very first day of middle school. Unfortunately, they didn't even notice each other for well over another year until Tommy was 13 and Allison was still 12 and she tripped over a book bag in the cafeteria and spilled her red Gatorade all over Tommy's white polo shirt. Soon after that mishap however, the happy-go-lucky Tommy took a liking to the very introverted Allison, and they became friends.

A little more than another year later both Tommy and Allison were 14 and in a much larger and much more intimidating high school. Allison became quieter and more timid than ever, and in response Tommy grew very protective. It wasn't until Tommy was 17 and Allison was 16 and both were juniors in High School that a few different aspects of Tommy and Allison's friendship became obvious, at least to everyone but themselves.

Tommy flinched as she dabbed the split skin over his left eye again.

"I can't believe he hit you," she muttered loudly and she unrolled another square of white paper towels, rinsed it under cold water for a moment before dabbing at the puffy red injury again.

"I think if I knew this would hurt so much I would have kept my mouth shut," the 17-year-old replied back with a tinge of irritability in his voice that successful got a smirk from his friend and in response finally sprouted a smile on his face too. His eyes glanced at the mirrored surface of the refrigerator's side panel for a moment and grimaced. "My mom's going to kill me."

"I told you to leave it alone." The brunette girl argued back. She finally let go of the reddening wet paper towel and stepped back to glance over him properly. He was right: his mother was going to kill him when she saw the physical proof of the mess he'd created. His left eye was already a darkening shade of purple, and just above it and below his brow there was a dark red line where his skin physically split and was swelling into something roughly the shape of a very fat caterpillar.

"What did you want me to do, Ally? Just let him say those things to you?"

"It wasn't your fight to pick," she replied back gruffly.

"The hell it wasn't!" He was looking at her with wide eyes and a disbelieving expression, but before the argument could continue any farther the front door opened loudly and familiar clicking of a cane and jumble of smaller feet echoed throughout the house. The two teenagers exchanged telling looks but didn't say anything aloud as the youngest Anderson ran into the kitchen.

Tommy watched as his little sister Jamie went straight towards the fridge to grab for something unknown. For a moment she paid no attention to her older sibling, but when she closed the refrigerator door after an unsuccessful raid, her eye caught her brother's face and their eyes met for a long and silent second. Tommy swallowed as he waited to see if his sister would raise the alarm, knowing her 11-year-old mind was processing the sight before her.

"Tommy?" Auggie Anderson's house called out loudly then, finally breaking the intense sibling eye contact.

"In here, dad." Jamie finally broke away and disappeared into another area of the home and Tommy glanced at the teenage girl's eyes for a moment before finally hopping down from the kitchen counter just as his blind father walked into the room.

"I understand that your sister is her own person, but you were so much easier to handle at her age..."

Tommy motioned silently towards his father with his eyes in a silent communication towards Allison. The girl took the cue up immediately and spoke up.

"Hello Mr. Anderson," her quiet voice spoke up and successfully caught the older man's attention.

"Allison Hendricks," Auggie turned loosely in her direction with a polite smile. "I didn't even know you were here."

"Oh, I…" Her eyes caught Tommy's for a moment and the look the younger Anderson male wore was a silent communication to keep the information of the real reason why she was over the Anderson home between them a secret. "Tommy just gave me a ride since lacrosse practice was canceled today because of the rain." The girl smiled slightly at what she thought was a believable and successful lie.

"How chivalrous," he replied back with a smirk that made the young girl start to pinken in the face. "Well its always nice to see you Allison. Figuratively speaking of course." He nodded in his son's direction for a moment before finally turning back towards the main area of the house leaving the two teenagers alone in the kitchen.

As soon as his father disappeared behind the corner of the kitchen archway Tommy dropped his head back in obvious withdrawal.

"What?" Allison questioned quietly as she began gathering her things spread over the kitchen island's top.

"He totally knew you were lying." The young girl abruptly doubled back in puzzlement. "Trust me, he's blind but he sees a lot more than anyone gives him credit for."

The girl's expression fell slightly, and though there was an obvious puzzlement hidden behind the look of worry she was wearing, she didn't vocalize her questions and remained silent instead as the pair began walking towards the front door.

"I can drive you the rest of the way home if you want," Tommy suggested quietly as he reached for the door. The knob turned quietly but the door opened with a loud _creak_ followed by the echoing double chime of the home's security system. "I can drive fine with this." He pointed to his black eye and Allison smiled and easy smile in response.

"Don't worry about it," she said much more gently now. "I live a block down, and I walk home every day." Without even thinking about it she lightly patted his arm that was holding open the door for her and their eyes met for a fraction of a second before falling again and Allison finally crossing over the home's threshold to the front yard.

"So I'll see you tomorrow?" She called back and only half turned with a smile as she waited his response. Tommy nodded with a similar smile and with that, watched as she started down the street towards her own neighborhood.

The door was quiet as it closed slowly behind him. The 17-year-old glanced around to see if his dad was nearby, but not seeing the parent around started quickly for his bedroom.

"Tommy."

The teenager frozen in his tracks before he could even get halfway down the hall. _Busted._ "Yeah dad?" he called back tentatively.

"What happened with Allison today?"

_He really did see more than anyone gave him credit for._ "I got into a little…" he chose his words carefully, knowing lying would only get him into trouble, but also knowing there was no way his father knew of the battle scars currently swelling up his face until someone told him about it. "_Argument_ with someone and she was just upset and lacrosse was canceled because of the rain so I offered to drive her home."

His father seemed to buy the story for a while as he processed the words. "And does her being upset have anything to do with your recent breakup with Kate or with the black eye you're currently sporting?"

Finally, Tommy released the much pent up sigh he had been harboring.

"And that sounds like the most truth I've gotten from you all day." Tommy immediately closed his eyes knowing the truth was out.

"Do you want to try and tell me what happened or do I need to get your little sister to spy on you again to get the truth out?"

Finally, Tommy stepped towards his father so he could face him and the music.

"I was trying to defend her and this _prick_ from our school decided my face was going to be his new punching bag." He tried to put some humor in his admission to soften the stern look on his father's face, but the attempt was unsuccessful. "You don't understand how horrible some of these people are to her. I wasn't trying to cause trouble, I just didn't want to see her get hurt again."

"Did you hit him?" Auggie abruptly interrupted his son's confession.

Tommy raised a puzzled eye. "First? No."

"But you hit him back after he hit you?"

"Umm," the teenager swallowed harshly. "Only by reflex."

The two Anderson men were silent for a moment, Auggie maintaining his cold, stern look as he thought for a moment and Tommy preparing himself for whatever punishment was about to be unleashed on him.

"I suggest you cover that up before your mom gets home and notices it then." With that, Auggie turned back around ready to walk towards his bedroom as his son's eyes grew wide and his mouth fell slightly.

"That's it?" The 17-year-old questioned incredulously.

Auggie smirked as he glanced back at his son. "Tommy, I love you, you are my oldest child, and my only son. With that in mind, I could never be angry at you for being a good guy and trying to defend someone weaker than you that you care about. Were I in your shoes at your age I probably would have broken the guys nose or thrown the first punch. Knowing the truth now though, I know I raised you well because as far as I can tell, you did everything I could ever ask my son to do." His smile widened even greater. "Minus maybe finding creative ways to outsmart your school's systems, but we could have an entire other debate about that some other time.)

A wide smile spread across Tommy's face that began to mirror Auggie's, and with the silence that concluded the father-and-son conversation, Auggie turned back towards his own master bedroom.

"Hey dad?"

Auggie didn't turn around but stood still as he listened to his son.

"You know Allison's just a friend, right?"

Auggie smirked a devilish smirk that spoke volumes.

"Of course," he replied back almost mockingly as he disappeared towards his bedroom and finally through the open doorway._ "Just like your mother."_

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Purely a little plot bunny that popped out of nowhere after celebrating the ending to my latest Covert Affairs fanfiction, **_Six Months Dark_**. (Which you should look up if you haven't already.) Basically I wanted to write something about Auggie's son and his little "bestie" and how Auggie seems to always know more than he lets on.

Reminder that Tommy _does_ end up marrying Allison in his early 20's and they have a daughter in the 30-year mark of **_Timeline_**.

Comments or requests always welcome. (And yes, I still have to write the honeymoon one-shot I promised forever ago.)

- Liz


	6. Lavender

**Lavender [4 - 5 years]**

* * *

The scent of lavender was overpowering. He smelled the floral scent wafting over his more perceptive senses the moment he opened the door and before the triple _ding_ of his home's alarm system could even sound through the house to identify his presence.

He smiled instantly, not because he favored the scent of lavender enough that it brought a smile to his lips every time it invaded his olfactory, but because he only knew of one particular person who else resided in his home that in the past three-to-four months had developed an interesting favor toward the scent of lavender. She placed the blame of her new scent preference to the ever-growing baby in her womb, and he didn't question her instincts nowadays; she was usually on par.

As silently as he could manage, Auggie Anderson walked through the front door and let it close quietly behind him. Two-and-a-half feet in front of him and to the left, he put down his cane, his house keys, and his bag, and removed and placed his shoes beneath the table before he continued his path through the spacious home and towards the origin of the powerful scent. He rounded a left as the wall ended to a corner, and a few steps later took another left as he crossed from the smooth, cool surface of the hardwood flooring of the main living area to the fluffier rug just at the edge of his bedroom.

His socked feet padded over the rug and bedroom carpet as he stepped towards the bed and deposited his jacket before finally turning one more left and crossing the room. Before he even met the door to the attached master bath, he could hear the soft splash and splatter of water and feel the warm air wafting through the doorway.

"I could smell your bath all the way from the front door," he mused teasingly as he leaned against the doorframe with a smile.

The blonde instantly looked up at the sound of his voice, and though the look was lost on him, her smile illuminated upon seeing his.

"I was almost a little worried when Joan told me you left early." His smile faded slightly, but his sightless eyes seemed to focus on her, or at least in the general direction. "Are you feeling ok?"

"I'm fine, Auggie," she said back slowly but unconvincingly. The frown the sprouted from her husband's handsome face made his observation of the fact obvious.

Annie sighed. "You know, when Danielle told me one day I'd go to bed with my normal body and wake up the next morning with this big belly that just popped overnight, I didn't believe her…" her voiced trailed off and her free right hand touched her swelling middle. "But you know, yesterday everything fit and today and I was bursting out of my shirt, none of my pants fit anymore, and I think I broke my feet trying to spend the day in my heels."

He didn't mean to, but as the last pitiful words hit his ears with the sad little puppy voice she made, a deep laughter erupted from Auggie's chest.

"Its not funny!" She pouted slightly, but her husband just kept on laughing as he finally started stepping forward closer to the bathtub's edge. "My feet have blisters bigger than I've ever seen in my life even though I haven't done any vigorous physical activity in weeks, my back feels like I moved a semi with my bare hands, and my god I can't decide if I'm hungry or nauseated half of the day."

Annie looked up at the still laughing man with a pout invisible to him, but as his hands found the edge of the tub and he leaned over her to give her a kiss, she felt a wave of slightly unexplained annoyance and aggravation build in her, and before she had much time to process it she sent a strong wave of soapy bath water over the edge of the tub and right into her still laughing husband.

"Hey," he exclaimed loudly as he jumped back immediately.

"You don't get it," her increasing pout made a smile spread his lips again. "I've gambled with terrorists, been shot, been tortured and held captive in Russian prison, and even survived going dark without you for months, and now I'm being brought down by a baby the current size of a chicken egg."

Auggie stood back for a moment, trying to think clearly about a rather delicate situation. He wasn't one to ever brag that he fully understood how Annie's mind worked, but even with just one or two brothers' and coworkers' advice in this area, he knew that this moment unfolding before him was a lot more delicate than any ordinary Annie pout, so he adjusted.

Annie watched puzzled for a moment as Auggie's hands immediately started undoing the buttons of his shirt. She raised an eyebrow as he got to his belt, and as the layers of clothing began to fall carelessly out of his path, a sly smile finally started to part her lips.

She didn't say a word as her hungry eyes devoured the impromptu strip tease before her as he undressed, and when he started to climb into the warm water next to her, she just as silently adjusted her sore position to make room for him. Immediately his arms nestled around her until they found themselves in a peacefully tangled pair of bodies under the soapy water.

"Its a very special chicken egg." His murmur into the skin of the back of her neck tickled lightly, but they had the desired effect as a wide smile and slow beginning of a bubbling laugh formed inside of her.

"Its a chicken egg that is reeking havoc on my body, my wardrobe, my schedule and routine like I hadn't anticipated so early on in this pregnancy."

Auggie let his lips start placing soft kisses along the back of her neck and shoulders exposed to him in this tight space. "Well, we didn't expect this to be effortless. We just have to try and keep any routines we _do_ have in place as normal as possible until they need to be adjusted."

Annie made a noise of discomfort and slight annoyance.

"Its hard to think about keeping my routine as normal as possible when even my_ gym partner _won't practice hand-to-hand with me anymore because he's scared he's going to throw a punch at my middle."

Auggie had to pause for a moment. "In my defense, I can't see any of you so it's significantly harder to aim."

This time Annie did roll her eyes and grunt. "The point is, I think back at what Joan went through when she was pregnant, and I can't imagine what kind of different treatment she got because I've barely _popped_ and already everyone around me is acting different." She could feel the bubbling anger inside of her, growing and spreading like some strangely uncontrolled force; yet _another_ unpleasant truth about being pregnant.

"I'm sorry," Auggie began tentatively, but Annie had more words to unleash before he could find the second half to his unnecessary apology.

"I just wish everyone would keep seeing me as _Annie Walker_ the operative instead of _Annie Walker going on maternity leave_."

"Unless I'm suddenly much worse at measuring than I ever thought, I'm pretty sure we're not at that point yet."

"You know what I mean," her annoyance was relentless. "Everyone looks at me differently because I have this _thing_ now poking out in front of me, running me to the bathroom more times than ever before, and slowing me down little by little and you get to walk around like you've always had."

Finally, after hearing the angry mother-to-be's rambling for the extended duration of her spew, Auggie Anderson interrupted.

"You think of people as not looking at me strangely, but they've been looking at me differently ever since I came back to the states with one less sense than I left with Annie." He felt a pent up heavy breath of air finally release from his lungs, and in the first time since he'd entered the bathroom, his wife was silent. "I know its uncomfortable, and you feel like everyone's watching; I can't see them, but I feel them all the time. But they're looking at you because you're doing something very few get the chance or have the courage to try and do. People look at you because they're proud, happy for you, in wonder, or jealous. When they look at me, they do it with a pity that's sickening because I'm the disabled guy who used to be out in the field and a badass covert operative now terminally stuck behind a desk playing with numbers and supporting the other guys that are doing everything I used to do and can't do anymore."

Annie was quiet, but in the cooling water of their lavender-scented bath, he felt her gravitating closer to him still as she let his words sink in.

"In a few months that little chicken egg will be born for us to love and make our lives even more interesting than it already is, and you'll quickly lose those stares and looks and get back to normal." He wasn't even sure he had digested the words he was thinking until they started slipping from his tongue. "Or at least a new kind of normal."

She made a sound somewhere between a giggle and a laugh, but at the occurrence of such a warm sound he felt the thick air around them finally begin to lift and he smiled in return.

They had talked about this moment in their life together over a year and a half ago, and after spending that time with no results, they began to think it wasn't going to happen. A life they had and shared as covert operatives for the CIA did not blend well with the suburban family ideals they were thinking about these days, but as the two of them lay there then, in the rapidly cooling water of that lavender-scented bath, both of them were smiling.

It _would_ be a change, but all things considered, neither of them was very good at being predictable or standard anyways. If lavender-scented baths were the cost of this miraculous new addition to their lives, he would gladly adjust. It _was_ a very special chicken egg after all...

* * *

**Author's Note:**

First off, massive shout-out to the most amazing fanfiction reader I've ever encountered, **YoreReader**. You are so amazing. No really. I had some a blast reading all your reviews, it was what really pushed me to publish something new. So a million and one thank you's. =]

So this oneshot was inspired by actually an "inspiration generator" that worked by generating one random sentence that you were supposed to start your story with. Well, my first attempt generated some strange sentences, and then out of know where I get **"The scent of lavender was overpowering." **and I thought "pregnant Annie relaxing in a lavender bubble-bath."

Presto! Instant oneshot idea. =]

Its a little rough, I got a little lost in the middle, but if I stopped again who knows how long it would be before I got out of this writing funk again. =P

Finally, the next oneshot is titled "Macaroni" and was a personal request on tumblr that was so cute, I can't wait to finish it up. (No really, its adorable.) It will feature 4-year-old Jamie, her very observant little eye and her very adorable love and attachment to her daddy.

As always, I am constantly inspired by your support, reviews, comments and any and all feedback.

Lots of Love,

- Liz


	7. Macaroni

**Macaroni [10 - 15 years]**

* * *

When Auggie returned home that day, he expected a few different things. For one, he expected to find a very energetic nine-year-old, like he had since that nine-year-old turned nine, and before that eight, and before that seven all the way since he was born. The second thing he expected to find was a delightfully talkative and observant 4-year-old ready to tell him all the adventures she had in preschool today, much like she had the past few months since she started. Finally, the third thing he expected this particular day as he stepped through the front door of his home of ten years was Annie Walker Anderson, and on this particular day he didn't expect to find her particularly happy or in good graces since she'd been pulled from the office three hours ago when he was in the middle of high-clearance debrief because their lovely four-year-old daughter's teacher was having a meet-the-parents night.

"Annie?" His voice carried through the home as he closed the front door behind him, unloaded his cane, keys, and small bag on the hallway table and made his way through the home. He could hear clatter coming from the northeast corner of the home and navigated in that direction. He had just crossed from the noisier and softer texture flooring of his living area to the cold, harder tile of his kitchen space when the loud and excited shriek of that very four year old erupted in the air. The father just had time to brace himself before the young girl's arms collapsed with her father's legs, nearly toppling him to the ground.

"Daddy!" She shrieked excitedly into the air, just as he scooped her up in his strong arms and lifted her up to his height in an excited bundle of laughter.

"My princess Jamie," he exclaimed dramatically and in a royal voice for emphasis. The young girl immediately giggled, her tiny arms wrapping tightly around her father's neck. "What has the princess done at school today?"

"I draw a picture!" Her happy exclamation radiated excitement. "I showed mommy too. She says its very pretty, and Miss Liddy," the young girl needed to pause in the middle of her speech to breathe. "Miss Liddy showed mommy my desk, and mommy see where my class is, and, and, my art!"

"Your art?" Auggie's exaggerated emphasis in his voice matched the young child's excitement. "I bet your art is B-E-A-U-T-full!" The young girl let out another wave of giggles at his loud exclamation and in return Auggie let his own laugh meld with hers as he cautiously carried her out back towards the main living area. "I'll have to get your mommy to describe it me later." He listened for the only other female that resided in the home. "Speaking of mommy, where is she?" He asked still playfully but with a much calmer tone. He knew Tommy was at a neighbor's playing with a friend, but he didn't expect his home to be large enough to lose an adult woman.

"Umm," the young girl started, turning in her father's arms even though her tiny hands never let go of the collar of his shirt. Before the young girl had a chance to speak however, the blonde in question appeared around a corner of the home with a bright smile lost to her blind husband but not to her excited daughter.

"Mommy!" The four-year-old exclaimed loudly and excitedly.

"Jamie," she started happily. She touched Auggie's full arm lightly to let him know her position and silently tell him to pass her their rambunctious child.

"Here Jamie, why don't you go find that hand print you made in school today so I can tell daddy all about what Miss _Lindy_ told me today at school?" Auggie listened with a smile to the mother and daughter's dialogue as Annie took her from his arms and a minute later the excited young girls hurried footsteps disappeared towards the corner of the home he knew her bedroom resided.

"I can't believe I missed _'meet-the-parents'_ night," he started off at a much more normal and low tone when he no longer heard the child nearby. He felt Annie tap his arm and Auggie was quick to grab her elbow as she guided them towards their bedroom.

"It happens, Auggie," she started off surprisingly non-accusatory. "You didn't miss too much anyways." For a moment Auggie thought back at the time that Annie was on a mission across the globe when his oldest, Tommy ended up with the chicken pox. In retrospect, this evening's events weren't that dramatic, or so he hoped.

"Although I do have one story I need to share with you that I heard today." Somewhere in the middle of her sentence the couple finally reached their bedroom and Annie took her husband's release of her elbow as an opportunity to turn to him and slowly wrap her arms light around his middle so she could finally get a proper hello.

"Oh?" Auggie started more playfully this time at her words, but he didn't need her to say anything regarding what she wanted now. As soon as Auggie felt her hands trails around his middle, a slow and wide smile spread his lips and he leaned in slightly so he could kiss his wife properly.

"Well," she started off after their warm moment with an interesting tone that picked at his interest. "Your daughter's teacher spent about 20 minutes raving at me about how brilliant our daughter is, and how quickly she picks up things, and that she's learning her letters like a pro, but that her absolute best skill is being _observant." _She said the word with a subtle emphasis that made Auggie peak an eyebrow.

"Observant?" he questioned tentatively, the smile never leaving his face.

"Yep," she popped her _'p' _for both emphasis and playfulness. "Apparently Jaime has an uncanny ability to pay attention to details." Auggie was still not convinced that he comprehended the statement as he felt his wife take a tiny step closer to him. "She's great at tracing shapes and redrawing them, such as in her alphabet even when they aren't in front of her, and she loves to draw," the last bit brought a smile to both parent's faces. "And Miss Lindy said that Jamie pays so much attention to the little details like she's never seen before in a student. She was mesmerized at watching Jamie try and draw a family portrait and see how long she took trying to find the right colors for mommy's hair, and daddy's hair, and Tommy's hair, and that we all had noses and mouths and that Tommy was smaller that mommy and daddy but bigger than Jaime and a lot of little things most four-year-olds don't pay attention to."

Auggie's proud smile was evident to his wife as she watched him take in all the information. There was a pause in her speech as she bent down to her bag on the floor to retrieve the stiff picture she'd been given by her daughter's teacher earlier that day.

"You know, she told me one thing Jamie did the other day surprised her more than just the drawings." Annie scanned her husband's eyes to see what emotions or questions were filtering through them as she carefully waded through the story.

"The class spent a whole morning drawing pictures of their families, and Jamie drew me, and you holding hands, and then Tommy off on the side and herself right next to you. Miss Lindy says the drawing was really well done for a four-year-old. Well, after lunch and naptime, they were given buckets of different colored macaroni in different shapes and sizes to glue onto their drawings to make frames. Most of the class made rainbow frames that were a little twisty and not very square," Annie paused. She knew when she was hearing the story earlier she had expected a rebellious four-year-old to pop into the tale at any moment. "Your daughter did something different however. When the teacher came by to look at what she was doing, she'd glued different macaroni all over her whole drawing until you couldn't even see it anymore."

Finally, a frown crossed Auggie's features, just as Annie had expected.

"That was basically my reaction when she told me too."

"That girl," Auggie sighed heavily thinking about her rebellious toddler. "She likes to make her own rules."

"That she does," Annie agreed quietly, but she couldn't suppress the wide smile glowing on her face. "But you know, the teacher was watching her do her own thing and noticed that she was picking out the macaroni by shape and gluing different shaped macaroni on different areas of the drawing, so she asked Jaime why she didn't follow directions…" Annie had to take a breath feeling her chest tighten just thinking about the first time she heard the story. "And your daughter," she could feel all the emotions that flooded her the first time she heard the story begin to swirl and tighten in her chest again. "Your super observant, smart-as-a-whip, beautiful little four-year-old Jaime told the teacher '_I want to make a picture that my daddy can see too.'"_

* * *

**Author's Note:**

Leave me your thoughts, suggestions, or even a request. Also be on the lookout for a timeline of this "Timeline"/"Time Frame" universe I'll be posting to clear up a few time discrepancies and questions.

- Liz


	8. Jamie's Rules

**Jamie's Rules [30 - 40 years]**

* * *

**Notes:**

Contains some heavy and darker subjects and indications of alcohol and anger management problems. Completely focused on grown up Jamie and rather old Auggie.

* * *

.

These days it took a great deal and a speed immeasurable by most to surprise Auggie Anderson. He'd lived some thirty years sighted, and over four decades blind, so something shy of a miraculous event not much took the blind and retired operative by surprise.

When his daughter called him one day out of the blue to come meet her across town at a bar however, he was most definitely surprised.

Auggie Anderson listened carefully to the bumps and honks, voices and sounds of construction outside the taxi door as the vehicle drove him towards his destination. For someone who spent a majority of his life in the dark and one-sense-short of an ordinary human being, Auggie Anderson's sense of _hearing_ was his most important sense when it came to direction and transportation. As he sat in the back of the small car however, he heard the medley of noises outside the glass windows but he wasn't _listening_ to them. His mind was much too preoccupied, thoughts swirling with all the possibilities of what prompted this strange meet, some causing a deep pit in his stomach, and others just leaving his mind swirling even faster like some alien vortex that consumed all his brain power. The frown he wore on his face was unusually obvious, even to any individual who knew nothing of him.

"Sir?" The foreign voice suddenly broke all thought in the older man's mind. Auggie took a second to orient himself and realized the car was no longer moving.

The driver muttered a few other words including the total toll for the trip and something about "be careful where you step" which did little more than prompt an eye roll from the man. It always took him as a nuisance that every stranger he met seemed to want to caution him of every tiny detail like he'd just been blinded yesterday.

Auggie stepped carefully onto the curb before the bar and unfolded his cane in one swift movement as he listened to the car behind him drive away and disappear from his line of hearing. The sun high above him was blistering today, and for a moment he regretted not bringing a pair of sunglasses. Those two eyes in front of him may very well disappear for the use he had out of them, but apart from getting zero visual feedback from the otherwise undamaged organs, they still were getting increasingly sensitive to the harsh summer sun these days.

Taking one steady breath, he finally moved, carefully swaying his cane in front of him as he attempted to navigate towards the door. Within eight steps, his cane hit the exterior wall, and about two steps to the side he finally found what he hoped was the correct door. Like many of the older establishments in this part of town, there wasn't any kind of braille marker to tell him his location, so it was a gamble on his part.

The door was stiff to open, but the moment Auggie Anderson stepped inside the slightly more elevated floor, he could smell and hear that he had, in fact, entered the right establishment.

"Dad!" He heard a voice abruptly echo in the stuffy space and just as quickly the unpleasant look on his still handsome face faded into a brighter smile.

"I was worried your taxi would take you to the wrong place," he heard his daughter's voice approach him. A light touch on his arm oriented him, and as he lightly took his adult daughter's arm, she guided them towards a table. Without a single word, Jamie followed all the subtle movements that her mother had taught her years ago and put her father's hand on the tall chair and let him sit on his own.

"Well you're mother's meeting me later on when this is over, so eventually one of you would notice I'd vanished if that were the case." Auggie listened carefully as his daughter ordered only one beer for the table and resisted the urge to make his catch of that detail obvious on his facial features.

"So," the father started slightly awkwardly when a silence fell between them. "Are you going to tell me why you dragged your poor, old, and blind father to a bar across town, or am I going to have to guess?"

A soft smile broke the young woman's face, and though he couldn't see it, he had some sense that it was there.

"You know how a read-in works, right?" The abrupt question caught the older man by surprise, and his face went still, bringing back an iron look he hadn't used in the years since he left his clandestine employer.

"My daughter is finally reading me in on her _real life,"_ he said much more quietly. "Never thought I'd see the day." A sly smile broke his unmoving expression and in turn did the same for the young woman. "Figuratively speaking of course."

Jamie was smiling lightly, but Auggie didn't need to see it to know there was a serious conversation looming over the surface of his lighter comment.

"I got offered an interim head position," she started slowly. Auggie raised an eyebrow in a little surprise but let her continue. "But I'm not sure what I want to do with the offer."

Auggie was silent as he processed her words, and Jamie watched quietly for her father's reaction. After a moment Auggie reached slowly over the table until he could find his daughter's hand and let her smaller and colder fingers rest in his as a silent reassurance that he would listen to anything else she wanted to share.

"I've been in therapy." The words spewed out of the young woman's mouth so abruptly that they effectively caught the father by surprise. In response he just squeezed his daughter's unusually cold hand harder.

"That was probably the worst place to start," she began again unsteadily, but this time Auggie finally broke his silence.

"Just tell me everything you think you need to, Jamie." He cast her a reassuring smile, and somehow it made the twisting deep in her stomach a little lighter and brought back moment of her father holding her when she was little and fell or hurt herself being the little daredevil that she was. "You talk, and just tell me when you're done and want me to answer."

Jamie took a deep breath. "Most of my life I've had everyone compare me to mom," she began again. "They said I had the adventurous nature of mom, that I was going to make a great operative like mom, and that I was clever like mom…" her voice trailed off a little, but Auggie knew she was just getting her bearings. "I don't remember mom having such a problem with some of these issues _I'm_ having though."

Without a word, Auggie moved his other hand to his first so that now his daughter's hand was sandwiched between his.

"I have a _really_ bad temper," she finally admitted. "I got arrested last year for breaking a guy's nose who threw a cat call at me." Auggie attempted to resist, but somehow as the words collided with his ears he couldn't resist sprouting a wide smile of pride that his daughter, while perhaps inheriting his bad temper, was a strong and independent woman that obviously didn't need any help taking care of herself.

"Pretty sure parents aren't supposed to be proud of hearing their daughter's been arrested, dad." Her voice was slightly more playful this time, and it lifted some of the tension over the table. Auggie vaguely heard and felt a tall glass being placed on the table and pushed towards him.

"I'm allowed to be proud that my daughter doesn't take any of this society's misogynistic bullshit though," Aggie let slip unfiltered. "I'm proud that if anything, you got your mother's strength." Auggie was smiling. "Even if you unfortunately also got my hot-headedness." He thought about the second half of his sentence and grimaced slightly. "I once got arrested for breaking a beer bottle over a guys head after my ex girlfriend dumped me." He purposely left out the part about his ex really being an ex fiancé and that he was out of touch with Annie at the time as well. "You have your mom's strength, independence, and strong will."

"I'm not that strong, dad…"

"Yes you are," Auggie said it firmly this time. "You've always been, Jamie."

Jamie felt warmth in her that was foreign when she was feeling so cold outside, but in this heavy moment and in her heavy heart it brought a strange comfort to her.

"Do you remember when I told you I was in Australia?" Jamie started more quietly this time. Auggie nodded lightly in recollection. "I met a man there."

Auggie resisted the urge to make a noise of a stereotypical father and instead let her continue.

"His name was Ben," she sighed in between the sentence and it made some strange thoughts pop up in Auggie's mind. "Benjamin Ryan." She said the name like it was a poem and a sturdy image was forming together in Auggie's mind. "He was a photographer I quite _literally_ ran into at a concert while I was trying to turn an asset in Australia. He was photographing this young, new band that was performing, and I was trying to find my contact, not paying attention, and tripped over his tripod."

"You inherited your clumsiness from your mother," Auggie interrupted, properly lightening the mood.

Jamie laughed lightly, but continued her story. "I think I've had the CIA tell me about three-dozen times that operatives need to keep themselves distant from all foreigners that are not part of missions…"

Auggie was catching on quickly. "But you fell in love with him." It wasn't a question, and the sound she made with her teeth was proof enough. "And I'm assuming this is relevant because he's somehow reappeared." Jamie swallowed thickly at her older father's still sharp skills.

"I think for a while I tried to convince myself that it was the accent, and his tan, and his warm eyes, and all the little things unrelated to emotional attachment. And then a lot of crazy things happened and I already knew I wasn't allowed to have him around, and then it all went bad and I blew it." She looked up at her father to see what his reaction was, but the older man had a look she was having a difficult time reading. She waited a moment, and then another, expecting her father to say something at this point, tell her there were more fish in the ocean, or to go for the promotion and her dreams, or some other cliché line a father was _supposed _to say to his daughter. Auggie, however, did none of these and instead remained silent. He knew too well his daughter's story wasn't finished. He may have been retired, but he wasn't a fool nor was he without more connections that your everyday laptop. He had been keeping tabs on his youngest for years, and while he may not know the details, he knew she wasn't divulging the entire story yet either.

"Now's a good time to say something, dad."

Auggie waited a heavy moment before speaking. "Did you read him in?"

The question took the younger woman by surprise. "Of course."

"And how did he respond when you told him what you do?"

"At first, he thought I was joking." She thought back at that summer a few years ago when she'd nearly spent four straight days in bed with him before she read him in, and his reaction to it. "He accepted it though."

Auggie's expression didn't change. "So he accepted that you're a spy for the United States who may or may not be getting paid to gamble with some of the most dangerous and deadly people in the world?"

Jamie was a little confused. "Well I didn't spell it out quite that way but yea, I told him everything I am legally allowed to including that I'm _not _legally allowed to give him any details of my job description." A sly and slow smile started on her lips. "Actually he said it made a lot of sense."

Auggie stayed silent a moment longer and Jamie felt a cringe coming along, subconsciously knowing some uncomfortable questions were about to be surfaced.

"And the therapy fits in somehow." Again, it wasn't a question.

Jamie took a deep breath. "My handler thinks I need a vacation."

"What do you think you need, Jamie?"

There was silence between them then. The quieter sounds of the remainder of the half empty bar during its slow daytime hours seemed to get loudly compared to the silence of the pair's table. Jamie noticed the forgotten and neglected beer off to the side and wished her father would at least take a drink from it so she wouldn't have to stare at it full like some bad reminder of some more regrettable things she'd done in the past few years under the influence of the poisonous substance. Auggie Anderson felt something dark looming over his daughter, and though he refused to push her, it made him uncomfortable to know something wasn't right.

"I was pregnant."

Auggie's heart seemed to plunge down through his stomach and into the floor beneath his feet. The words from her mouth had come out so small and low, in that moment she'd sounded like when she was a child, getting ready to cry and whispering her faults or fears to him.

"I didn't even know I was pregnant until I miscarried."

He felt an intense tug in his empty chest, to the extent that Auggie felt like he was going to stop breathing. His eyes were stinging, his skin was feeling cold, and he knew he was going to start tearing.

"Its okay dad," she said softly but a little more normally this time. "I'm okay with it now." It didn't do much to ease her father though. He physically felt like he couldn't breathe. "You know, it was tough, but I only knew him for a few months and I didn't even know I was pregnant, and I definitely wasn't ready for that in my life, and we talked it out and then I left. It's all in the past."

"Are you okay with it because you're working it out with your mandated therapist or because he's back in your life?" The pain in his voice was more than evident. "Did you break up with him or did he break up with you when all of this happened.

"No!" She was startled just at the accusation. "He was…" her voice trailed off for a moment. "He was wonderful." Her voice had softened again, somehow gaining an ease to it as she spoke. "He was with me the entire time when it happened." There was a tug at her heart, and her brown eyes felt itchy and hot as they started stinging. "He didn't want me to go." She brought back the dark memories. "But I told him the policy on foreigners, and he just let me go."

"Jamie," her father's abrupt voice broke her haze, and when she looked him in those sightless eyes, she saw something in them that she'd never seen before. He didn't need to say anything else; she knew. Like it or not, she knew what he was saying and what he was asking, and that was what was surprising her the most. She didn't need to tell her father how she'd run into Ben again because he was currently in the States under contract with an advertising agency, or that her possible promotion was on the rocks because of Ben. Just as she had, Auggie Anderson just _knew._

"I spent too many years furious at the world, drinking myself into violent outbursts and bad relationships before I finally got together with your mom." It felt like decades since the last time she'd seen it, but finally, a sly and slow smile stretched his aged skin, and it made her warm from the inside out. "Jamie Elizabeth Anderson, you have never been the one to follow the rules; you're the one to _make_ the rules." It was like the missing puzzle piece that was fitting into place finally. "Why are you trying to convince yourself to stop being you now?"

And that was it. Before he could even get the last word out, Jamie Anderson was out of her seat, around their tall table and had her thin arms so strongly around her father's neck he almost lost the breath in his lungs and the balance off his stool.

"Thank you," her whisper was so tiny in his ear it sent warmth filling the coldness her darker admissions had left in his chest, and in a blur, she was out the door.

She had asked if he needed a ride to his next destination, but Auggie knew she was in a hurry. It was a blur as she dashed out of that bar, leaving her father in wonder at all the information she'd finally shared with him. She was vaguely aware as she drove down the twisting and congested roads of D.C. to her assigned apartment. Her smile grew wide as she parked the vehicle, entered the locked lobby doors, ran up the four flights of stairs, and finally unlocked her door and stepped inside.

She couldn't help it; there was a sensation deep in her gut, radiating like a fiery heat that was making his skin and body buzz in excitement, and she couldn't place it.

She didn't bother with neatness as she dumped her belongings on the floor beside the door and jumped three long steps into her apartment further before her fast and skillful eyes spotted him, and the rush she'd felt deep inside her body faded into a slow motion.

He was sitting in one of the only chairs in her apartment, in one of the only four T-shirts she knew he had on him in his tiny bag, and the only pair of cotton shorts he owned. Big, bulky headphones covered his tan ears, his brown messy half-curled hair sticking out in strange directions from the band crossing his ears, and he was so intensely focused on the bright images on his screen in front of him and the blasting music in his ears that she could faintly hear from her spot several feet away, he didn't even know she was there. And that was a scene she realized now that she didn't want to change.

She didn't say a word as she finally moved, taking five long steps forward until she reached him, looping one thin leg in front and over his lap, and before he even had a moment to react startled over her thin body pressed between he and the tiny table in front of him, her strong hands grasped the sides of his face and she pulled him into a deep and powerful kiss that made the entire world just stop in its spot.

After all was said and done, her father was right. She didn't follow other's rules, and if she were avoiding something just because she didn't understand it, then she'd be missing out on opportunities to be even more unexpected than she already was.

"Now that's not something I get all the time," Ben spoke out breathlessly when they finally parted with raggedy breaths and deep pounding hearts in their heated skin. His big hands were gentle against her small ribs and back, and at the moment she felt like gold in them.

"Yes." It was only one word that she said breathlessly, but it was one she realized now she'd been dying to say for years.

"Yes?" He questioned confusingly in his thick accent and with such an expression on his distinctive features that it made her already racing heart flutter happily.

"Yes," she repeated with assurance before she wasted no time to pull his face strong against hers again and lay on him another kiss that made her hungry for something she felt deep in her core. "Yes I want to marry you."

The smile on his handsome face illuminated into something almost blinding.

"Yea?" His accent was strongest yet, and her only answer was another suffocating kiss.

"Yes, I want to!" She felt an explosion of undiluted excitement burst from her skin. "Not now," she corrected herself more calmly this time. His smile never faded however. "But I want _you."_ She searched his eyes for something different in them, but all she saw was a mirror, reflecting back everything she was feeling deep in her chest and it was the final click of the key or piece of the puzzle falling into place.

"I thought you said you _couldn't_ because of your work."

She wanted to laugh at all the truth behind it. "I can't," she said almost defiantly. "But I've decided I'm using someone's rules to hide behind the deeper issue."

There was something about the whole arrangement. It was in the way his hazel eyes seemed to make her want to swim in his soul and let time melt into a puddle at her feet. It was in the feel on his strong and skillful hands around her sides and the way they made her body sing and sigh and laugh and cry with the most innocent and lightest touch. It was the way he smiled at her, and the way he spoke to her, and the way he said her name, and the way he'd held her tight those years ago in Australia when she'd been taken to a hospital. It wasn't any one thing that was suddenly bringing on the moment of enlightenment and laying that yellow brick road to her happiness in front of her; it was _him._

"I'm not taking your name though."

His smile was even greater, and finally, he took the initiative and pulled her into his chest for a deep but much softer kiss that left a sweet taste on her lips.

"And I'm going to be traveling a lot, including long term trips that I'll pull a lot of strings and break a lot of rules to try and bring you along for."

Though her eyes were closed with their faces less than inches apart, she could _feel_ the ever-growing smile on his lips.

"I can take my work anywhere."

"And I'll be on many ops for three or four days at a time in where I won't be able to contact you at all."

"Then I'll wait for you at home."

The skin around her mouth was tight and sore supporting the wide smile on her small face.

"Even if I don't want to get married right away, and I may never want to have kids or wear a puffy dress for our wedding, or dress up for dates, or even remotely do anything any ordinary woman would?"

If there was such thing as a perfect answer, he seemed to know what her's was.

"Its your rules, Jamie." He didn't need to tell her he loved her for her to know. "You make the rules."

After all,_ Jamie Elizabeth Anderson was very good at making her own rules._

* * *

**Author's Note:**

This one took the breath right out of me. Truth be told (you're going to laugh at me) I had a dream last night. I'm not sure of the details, or really what it was about at all except there was a blind Auggie in it, and that's it. Subconsciously though it must have left an impact because I had this _itch_ in my mind to start a new oneshot and at 9 in the morning I started _pouring_ over my laptop typing this crazy conversation between Auggie and his adult daughter and her love interest that you'll recognize from the 40-year mark in**_"Timeline"_**.

So...yeah. A few hours later (and little think called _a job_ in between) and presto! New Time Frame update. =)

I know its definitely _barely_ related to Annie and Auggie since it's so set in the future, but I hope its enjoyable nonetheless. I really just wanted to show how Jamie has a little of each of her parents in her and at the end of the day, while I hope you catch some of the subtleties I built into her beloved _Ben_, Jamie is still her own person, making her own rules. (Just like the macaroni.)

Keep an eye out for the timeline of all these fics I'll be posting soon and updating regularly so it'll contain all the fics you've seen and will see under _Time Frame._

- Liz


	9. master timeline

**BEGINNING**

* * *

_unknown:Annie goes dark. Their relationship is on a break and not considered in the timeline._

* * *

**0 months:**_ Beginning of Annie and Auggie's relationship (post "dark")_

* * *

**6 months: **Their first six months together were rocky, to say the least. Keeping it covert lasted for almost exactly two minutes. Couple fight.

* * *

**10 months: **Proposal #1 : Auggie Proposes at the airport before a three-week mission. Annie says no.

* * *

**. .**

**+ 1 YEAR**

* * *

**1 year 0 months: **Proposal #2 1 Motorcycle: Auggie shows up on Annie's mission, has his accident with the motorcycle, and Annie asks him to propose again. They get engaged.

* * *

**1 year 11 months: **Annie and Auggie hear about the "Sinclair" deep cover op, so that rush the wedding.

* * *

**. .**

**+ 2 YEARS**

* * *

**2 year 0 months:** Auggie and Annie are married and Annie adds Anderson on the back of her name. _Annie Catherine Walker Anderson._

* * *

**2 year 1 months: **Sinclair Cover [begins]: Auggie and Annie begin a 8 month and 22-day deep cover as Mr. and Mrs. Sinclair.

* * *

**2 years 8 months: **Sinclair cover [ends]: Auggie and Annie return to D.C. as August Anderson and Annie Walker Anderson. Auggie brings up having children.

* * *

**2 years 11 months:** Start "trying": Annie and Auggie decide to stop using any birth control, but end up having a more difficult time getting pregnant than expected.

* * *

**. .**

**+ 4 YEARS**

* * *

**4 years 0 months: **3rd Anniversary: Annie and Auggie celebrate their 2-year wedding anniversary, and without knowing it, conceive Tommy.

* * *

**4 years 1 month: **Pregnant! Annie finds out she is pregnant, Auggie is rejected for the last medical study he will ever try.

* * *

**4 years 8 months: **Thomas William Anderson is born, about 4 weeks early at a very healthy 7-pounds 6-ounces.

* * *

**. .**

**+ 5 YEARS**

_Auggie: 40 . . . . . . Annie: 35_

* * *

_5 years 0 months: Annie and Auggie's 3rd wedding anniversary._

* * *

**5 years 3 months: **Auggie turns 40, Tommy is 7 months old.

* * *

**5 years 8 months: **Tommy's first birthday.

* * *

_6 years 8 months: Tommy's 2nd birthday._

_7 years 8 months: Tommy's 3rd birthday._

_8 years 8 months: Tommy's 4th birthday._

_9 years 8 months: Tommy's 5th birthday._

* * *

**. .**

**+ 10 YEARS**

_Auggie: 45 . . . . . . Annie: 40_

* * *

**10 years 0 months: **Annie and Auggie end up getting pregnant with Jaime.

* * *

**10 years 2 months: **Tommy gets the chicken pox while Annie is in Australia for 7 days. When she comes back she tells Auggie she's pregnant again.

* * *

**10 years 8 months: **Tommy turns 6, Auggie is 45, Annie is 41 and almost 8 months pregnant with Jamie.

* * *

**10 years 9 months: **Jamie is born, 5 weeks after her brother's 6th birthday.

* * *

_11 years 0 months: Annie and Auggie's 10 year wedding anniversary._

_11 years 8 months: Tommy's 7th birthday._

_11 years 9 months: Jamie's 1st birthday._

_12 years 8 months: Tommy's 8th birthday._

_12 years 9 months: Jamie's 2nd birthday._

_13 years 8 months: Tommy's 9th birthday._

_13 years 9 months: Jamie's 3rd birthday._

_14 years 8 months: Tommy's 10th birthday._

_14 years 9 months: Jamie's 4th birthday._

* * *

**14 years 11 months:** Jamie starts preschool. Annie meets Ms. Lindy her preschool teacher and they tell her about her macaroni art.

* * *

_15 years 8 months: Tommy's 11th birthday._

_15 years 9 months: Jamie's 5th birthday._

_16 years 8 months: Tommy's 12th birthday._

_16 years 9 months: Jamie's 6th birthday._

_17 years 8 months: Tommy's 13th birthday._

_17 years 9 months: Jamie's 7th birthday._

_18 years 8 months: Tommy's 14th birthday._

_18 years 9 months: Jamie's 8th birthday._

_19 years 8 months: Tommy's 15th birthday._

_19 years 9 months: Jamie's 9th birthday._

* * *

**. .**

**+20 YEARS**

_Auggie: 55 . . . . . . Annie: 50_

* * *

_20 years 8 months: Tommy's 16th birthday._

_20 years 9 months: Jamie's 10th birthday._

_21 years 8 months: Tommy's 17th birthday._

_21 years 9 months: Jamie's 11th birthday._

* * *

**22 years 1 month:** Tommy comes home with a black eye for defending Allison. Auggie makes the first comment about the pairs future and comparing it to his and Annie's.

* * *

_22 years 8 months: Tommy's 18th birthday._

_22 years 9 months: Jamie's 12th birthday._

* * *

**23 years 2 months: **Tommy starts college. During orientation, he takes Auggie, gets distracted by a pretty girl and ends up losing him (briefly) in the middle of all the chaos.

* * *

_23 years 8 months: Tommy's 19th birthday._

_23 years 9 months: Jamie's 13th birthday._

_24 years 8 months: Tommy's 20th birthday._

_23 years 9 months: Jamie's 14th birthday._

_24 years 8 months: Tommy's 21st birthday._

_24 years 9 months: Jamie's 15th birthday._

_25 years 8 months: Tommy's 22nd birthday._

_25 years 9 months: Jamie's 16th birthday._

* * *

**25 years 11 months:** Tommy graduates undergrad and moves to California for graduate school.

* * *

**26 years 7 months: **Tommy ends up bringing Allison to California after she ends up calling him upset. They officially start their relationship.

* * *

_26 years 8 months: Tommy's 23rd birthday._

_26 years 9 months: Jamie's 17th birthday._

_27 years 8 months: Tommy's 24th birthday._

_27 years 9 months: Jamie's 18th birthday._

* * *

**_27 years 11 months:_**_ Tommy proposes to Allison._

* * *

_28 years 8 months: Tommy's 25th birthday._

_28 years 9 months: Jamie's 19th birthday._

* * *

**. .**

**+30 YEARS**

_Auggie: 65 . . . . . . Annie: 60_

* * *

**30 years 3 months:** Tommy and Allison get married. Allison becomes Mrs. Allison Anderson, the third AA.

* * *

_30 years 8 months: Tommy's 26th birthday._

_30 years 9 months: Jamie's 20th birthday._

* * *

**31 years 4 months:** Jamie graduates college and gets accepted into CIA training and sent to the farm.

* * *

_31 years 8 months: Tommy's 27th birthday._

_31 years 9 months: Jamie's 21st birthday._

* * *

**31 years 11 months:** Julia Marie Anderson is born. Tommy is a dad, Annie and Auggie are grandparents. Jamie is at the farm.

* * *

**32 years 5 months:** Jamie finishes training at the farm and is offered a position as a covert operative for an unknown department of the CIA.

* * *

**32 years 8 months:** Allison finds out she is pregnant with her second child on_ Tommy's 28th birthday._

* * *

_32 years 9 months: Jamie's 22nd birthday._

_32 years 11 months: Julia Marie Anderson's 1st birthday._

* * *

_33 years 8 months: Tommy's 29th birthday._

_33 years 9 months: Jamie's 23rd birthday._

_33 years 11 months: Julia Marie Anderson's 2nd birthday._

* * *

**34 years 3 months:** Matthew and Mackenzie Anderson are born, Tommy and Allison's twins, first son and second daughter, Annie and Auggie's second and third grandchildren.

* * *

_34 years 8 months: Tommy's 30th birthday!_

_34 years 9 months: Jamie's 24th birthday._

_34 years 11 months: Julia Marie Anderson's 3rd birthday._

* * *

**35 years 2 months:** Annie and Auggie downsize to a smaller home with one small guest room.

* * *

_35 years 3 months: Matthew and Mackenzie's 1st birthday._

* * *

**35 years 9 months:** Jamie's 25th birthday. She meets Ben while in Australia. He is an Australian native and full-time professional photographer.

_35 years 11 months: Julia Marie Anderson's 4th birthday._

* * *

**36 years 3 months:** Jamie and Ben break up because of her job.

_36 years 3 months: Matthew and Mackenzie's 2nd birthday._

* * *

_36 years 9 months: Jamie's 26th birthday._

_36 years 11 months: Julia Marie Anderson's 5th birthday._

_37 years 3 months: Matthew and Mackenzie's 3rd birthday._

_37 years 9 months: Jamie's 27th birthday._

_37 years 11 months: Julia Marie Anderson's 6th birthday._

_38 years 3 months: Matthew and Mackenzie's 4th birthday._

_38 years 9 months: Jamie's 28th birthday._

_38 years 11 months: Julia Marie Anderson's 7th birthday._

_39 years 3 months: Matthew and Mackenzie's 5th birthday._

_39 years 4 months: Jackson Anderson, Tommy and Allison's "oopsie" baby is born, Auggie and Annie's fourth and unplanned grandchild._

* * *

**39 years 11 months:** Jamie's 29th birthday. She runs into Ben again and they get back together. Ben moves to the U.S. shortly after.

39 years 11 months: Julia Marie Anderson's 8th birthday.

* * *

**. .**

**+ 40 YEARS**

_Auggie: 75 . . . . . . Annie: 70_

* * *

**40 years 0 months:** Jamie brings Ben home to meet her parents. Auggie has an aneurism.

* * *

_40 years 9 months: Jamie's 30th birthday._

* * *

**41 years 1 months:** Jamie is married to Benjamin Stanley Ryan, but she never takes his last name.

* * *

**41 years 8 months:** Jamie gets pregnant and tells her parents she's pregnant 8 weeks into the pregnancy.

* * *

**41 years 11 months:** Jamie miscarries, and she and Ben decide they're not going to try anymore.

* * *

**42 years 10 months:** Jamie and Ben adopt a baby girl and name her Hailey Penelope Anderson Ryan.

* * *

**_51 years: Annie and Auggie's 50th wedding anniversary. Auggie passes away over night. They have a funeral within the next couple of days, and Annie dies about two weeks later in her sleep._**


End file.
